RE: Value of a Person-Rem -Reply

[Charles Willis <CAW@nrc.gov>]

John, et al.,

The dollars-per-person-rem issue continues to be debated and it remains
interesting.  The NRC's $1,000 per person-rem remains a part of the regulations,
specifically, 10 CFR Part 50 Appendix I.  There are various proposals for the use of
different values.  A popular idea is to increase the basic value to $2,000 but to add
a "present worth" qualifier.  Thus, a dose to be received or averted 50 years hence
would be worth $175, assuming a 5 percent discount rate.

It is interesting how the $1,000 was obtained.  When Appendix I was being
developed, the AEC searched the literature and found Otways $980 to be the
largest value being suggested, so they rounded off to $1,000, presumably thinking
it so outrageously high the even the Gofmans and Sternglasses would accept it and
the idea was correct.  Otway derived his values from the Air Force hazardous duty
pay for pilots.  Some pilots did experience high risks, e.g. a life expectancy of about
1 minute in combat for torpedo plane pilots, so they received higher pay, but the
same hazards pay went to all pilots.  Otway calculated the dollars per death value
for the pilots of the safest planes in peace time, and converted this to person-rem
assuming 0.001 cancer deaths per person-rem.  (See LA-4860-MS)

Many other values are recommended.  The Health Physics Society recommends
$40 per person-rem.  On the other hand, utilities in 1994 used values ranging from
$5,000 to $27,000.  Of course, Charlie Meinhold contends that the values used by
the utilities are not valid ALARA numbers.  Still, there is a considerable range to
chose from.

Charlie Willis
caw@nrc.gov
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