74
N-5
The
sequence
of
safety
recommendations
and
guides
has
run
as follows.
(a)
In 1954 the National
Bureau of Standards
Handbook
59 presented
the recommendations
of the NCRP.
The maximum permissible
dose to the
body)
was 0.3 rem per week.
bone marrow (and hence to the entire
(b)
In January,
population
was lowered
published
as an insert
other
recommendations
Report
to the Congress.
1957,
the whole-body
dose for
the general
to .5 rem per year by the NCRP.
This was
The AEC also
published
this
into
Handbook
59.
22nd Semiannual
in Appendix
10, p. 400 of its
(c)
In 1960,
the Federal
Radiation
Council
defined
The “radiation
protection
guide”
the general
population.
The “protective
case of protection
was .170 rem per year.
to cover
marrow.
spills
These
and other
regulations,
accidents,
was .2
now administered
rem per year
by EPA, are
(d) In the period
1985-87,
the ICRP (1985)
and the
dropped
their
recommendations
for
the general
population
year.
two guides
and
for
for
the usual
action
guide”,
to the bone
still
in force.
NCRP (1987)
to .1 rem per
When the Rongelap
people
returned
in 1957,
therefore,
the guide
by the AEC was 0.5 rem per year.
employed
It is not clear
to me that
this
guide
was met,
although
it may have been approximately,
i.e.,
within
a factor
of two.
The external
dose was stated
to be less
than 0.5
R/year,
and strontium-90
was considered
to be the only
significant
radionuclide
determining
the internal
dose
(Dunning
1957).
Lessard
(Note
7),
by extrapolation,
found
the committed
effective
dose equivalent
to be about
0.7 rem in 1957,
.44 rem in 1958,
and .36 rem in 1959.
These
do not allow
for the contributions
of plutonium
and americium.
estimates