Re: ALARA

[Bob Hearn <rah@america.net>]

Ron-

Efficiency, ie optimization of use of resources, including time and
dollars, has been an important goal long before ALARA or even ALAP, but it
is a goal to be sought on its own merit. When we put other labels on such
efforts, there is a result of excess baggage which costs resources and
often risks missing the true goal due to resultant misunderstandings and
direction of time and material resources toward peripheral considerations
that have no constructive relation to the goal of efficiency. It does not
serve us well to use a term indicating dose reduction to describe efforts
to achieve efficiency only because they involve radiological
considerations, and it is important to distinguish the two goals, even
though they may not always be mutually exclusive in application.

Bob Hearn

At 06:57 AM 12/10/97 -0600, RON L. SHEPHERD wrote:
>Al
>Read your letter to Shirley....very interesting
>I have a question for you though
>In your letter you wrote
>
>In addition, NRC documents should be examined for discussion of the
>concepts of As Low As Reasonable Achievable (ALARA) and Collective
>Dose.  ALARA should not be used below 5 rem per year or 10 rem short
>term dose unless there is a clear benefit of the reduction based on
>prior experience and measured benefits and the harm is not based on the
>linear hypothesis.  Collective dose should not be used at all.
>
>I have noticed this theme that ALARA is very expensive and not worth the
>bother.
>
>Initially, in the power industry, we thought the same until we realized that
>ALARA could actually SAVE US MONEY!!  What some of us came to realize is that
>dose is directly tied to money by a common factor.....time.  If we plan and
>execute tasks with fewer/no glitches we save time which also saves dose and
>money.
>
>So I am unclear as to what portion of the rad world is adversely affected by
>ALARA and thought you or others wouldn't mind letting us know what's going
>on???
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>Ron Shepherd
>SHEPHRL@GWSMTP.NU.COM
>
>