Re: Value of a Person-Rem

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 13:04 03.09.1998 -0500, you wrote:
>Radsafers:
>I'm trying to roughly quantify the dollar value of a facility redesign 
>project attributable to the estimated reduction in person-rem that will 
>result from the upgrade.  What I'm looking for are references that 
>mention specific dollar values per person-rem saved, for occupational 
>exposures currently in the 1-1.5 rem/yr range for an individual worker.
>Alternately, if there is a value currently widely used within the nuclear 
>industry, but which doesn't have the endorsement of any specific body, 
>that would be of interest too.
>
>I have looked through ICRP publications and found values ranging from 
>$1000/person-Sv to $100,000/person-Sv ($10 to $1000/person-rem) 
>referenced (ICRP 37).  These numbers seem unrealistically low to me.
>
>I have heard mention of an NRC endorsed value of $2000/person-rem, but 
>have no idea whether this is truly an official number, and if so where in 
>writing it appears.
>
>A search on Quest turned up a paper in Radiation Protection Management 
>quoting a value of $5000/person-rem, but without any reference mentioned .
>
>I assume this information would be of general interest to radsafe, 

------------------------------------------------

Since I am doing my RADSAFE work at home I do not have figures at hand and
might have problems to find them at work - but the differences might well
be explained by the fact that the "costs per life" usually depend on the
individual - for instance whether the individual is from a highly developed
country or from a developing country. This might explain the discrepancies
of the values you found in literature. Some people do not like the concept
that the value of life depends on the living circumstances. I personally
have a bad feeling regarding this.

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
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