314 RADIATION STANDARDS, INCLUDING FALLOUT lationship with its contractors, the AEC is assured by contractual arrangement that the contractor proposes to maintain certain minimum radiation protection standards. The recommendations of the NCRP have been the bases for these standards as incorporated in AEC Manual chapters (6). It is my understanding that future revisions of these manual chapters will reflect more directly the specific guidance offered to Federal agencies by the Federal Radiation Council. The second category of industrial users is composed of AEC licensees which constitute the principal industrial group complying with regulations specifically formulated and applied by the AEC. As of December 31, 1961, there were about 10,500 licenses in force (7). In issuing individual licenses the Commission requires compliance with the standards presented in title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (8). The standards utilized by licensees can vary from minimum controls over small individual radiation sources to extensive controls which cover as full a range of application as for the more complex atomic energy facilities. The third group includes the users of radiation sources not covered by the Atomic Energy Act. This group of industrial firms is engaged in activities such as nondestructive testing. In the course of their work they may use radiation sources such as X-ray machines, radium, and radionuclides produced by Van de Graaff generators. The principal guidance to these firms is contained in the recommendations of the NCRP. In many States such firms may also be under regulations promulgated by State authorities such as the State department of health. It is possible, of course, for an industrial firm simultaneously to fall under the jurisdiction of all of the above types of application of standards. ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS OF STANDARDS APPLICATION The adoption of standards by regulatory agencies of the Federal or State ‘Governments does not, in itself, insure that significant radiation exposures will not be received by workers or persons living in the vicinity of industries which handle sources of radiation. The industry or user must conduct his operations in such a manner that the standards will be easily met under normal operating circumstances with a margin to make it highly improbable that they will be exceeded under foreseeable adverse conditions. The amount of precaution which is necessary is obviously related to the size and nature of the user’s business. At one extreme is the technologist who uses minute quantities of a particular radionuclide for tracer-type work and whose total supply of radioactive material is so small that it constitutes an insignificant radiation hazard, no matter how casually he may handle the material. Compliance with standards is, in this case, assured at the time the radioactive material is dispensed to the technologist. At the opposite extreme is the large atomic energy facility which handles many tons of irradiated nuelear fuel and which must install elaborate safeguards to assure that equipment or human failure does not result in serious overexposures to perhaps hundredsof people. Whatever the nature of the operation, the governing stature, or the contractual obligation may be, it is the common situation that there are important administrative aspects in implementing the applicable standards. Few users of ionizing radiation will find that the applicable regulatory or guiding instrument will be applied directly in his individual case. Almost without exception some modification, interpretation, selection, or emphasis will be necessary and must be provided before the standard can be implemented effectively and intelligently. In the case of the modest user the maximum hazard may be both small and easily predictable. In such cases the user mayelect to relate his performance directly to the language of the legal standards without establishing additional working limits of his own. In the more typical situation the quantity and variety of radiation sources or the complexity of the facility is such that the radiation protection programis usually headed by a responsible radiological safety officer. This officer is respon- sible for assuring that the operating protection policies and practices of the installation are sound, and, with proper implementation assure that radiation exposures will remain within statutory and contractual requirements. ‘The installations often fully qualified radiological safety officer has expert knowledge of the history and development of the basic recommendations issued by such bodies as the NCRP and, therefore, is in a position to guide the radiological program by application of underlying philosophy and intent as well as by the terminology ‘of the legal instruments. The complex modes of exposure encountered in such preclude a simple direct comparison to basic standards on a day-to-day basis at the operating level. It is often necessary, therefore, to set up in-plant stand- Sothasisied peesitipa’ Ss AREASUSARSte sRCEE