RADNET readers please note that the radiation protection guidelines issued by the NRC are cited in the previous part of this section: Radiological Monitoring Programs - USA, see also part 1 of this section of RADNET: Federal Radiation Protection Guidelines Update 1997-1998.
 

A. Derived Concentration Guides for Radiation Protection

A fundamental reference used by the Dept. of Energy and appearing in most DOE laboratory site environmental reports is the Derived Concentration Guides (DCGs) for radiation protection. A partial listing of the radionuclides and their derived concentrations are republished below. It is particularly interesting to note that the reporting units for this guide are microcuries per thousandths of a liter (µCi/mL), a reporting unit which is one millionth of the traditional reporting unit of contamination per cubic meter (m³) of air concentration. The same reporting unit is also used for contamination of water. The use of this smaller reporting unit for air contamination in most DOE radiological monitoring reports makes it extremely difficult to observe trends and pulses in air concentrations which would be more obvious if the larger reporting unit were used.

"The Derived Concentration Guides (DCGs) are based on the DOE standard^a and have been calculated using DOE models and parameters for internal^b and external^c exposure. These are shown in Table 1. ... The DCGs consider only the inhalation of air, the ingestion of water, or submersion in air. The principal standards and guides for release of radionuclides ... are those of DOE ..." (INEL Site environmental report for calendar year 1995, appendix A) which are contained in the following publications:

^a U.S. Department of Energy Order 5400.5. (January 7, 1993). Radiation protection of the public and the environment.

^b U.S. Department of Energy. (July 1988). Internal dose conversion factors for calculation of dose to the public. DOE/EH-0071.

^c U.S. Department of Energy. (July 1988). External dose conversion factors for calculation of dose to the public. DOE/EH-0070.
 

TABLE 1 DERIVED CONCENTRATION GUIDES FOR RADIATION PROTECTION
Derived Concentration Guidea (µCi/mL)			Derived Concentration Guidea (µCi/mL)
Radionuclide	In Air	In Water	Radionuclide	In Air	In Water
Gross Alphab	2 x 10-14	3 x 10-8	131I	4 x 10-10	3 x 10-6
Gross Betac	3 x 10-7	1 x 10-7	132I	4 x 10-8	2 x 10-4
3H	1 x 10-7	2 x 10-3	133I	2 x 10-9	1 x 10-5
51Cr	5 x 10-8	1 x 10-3	135I	1 x 10-8	7 x 10-5
54Mn	2 x 10-9	5 x 10-5	134Cs	2 x 10-10	2 x 10-6
58Co	2 x 10-9	4 x 10-5	137Cs	4 x 10-10	3 x 10-6
60Co	8 x 10-11	5 x 10-6	139Ba	7 x 10-8	3 x 10-4
65Zn	6 x 10-10	9 x 10-6	140Ba	3 x 10-9	2 x 10-5
89Sr	3 x 10-10	2 x 10-5	141Ce	1 x 10-9	5 x 10-5
90Sr	9 x 10-12	1 x 10-6	144Ce	3 x 10-11	7 x 10-6
99mTc	4 x 10-7	2 x 10-3	238Pu	3 x 10-14	4 x 10-8
103Ru	2 x 10-9	5 x 10-5	239Pu	2 x 10-14	3 x 10-8
106Ru	3 x 10-11	6 x 10-6	240Pu	2 x 10-14	3 x 10-8
125Sb	1 x 10-9	5 x 10-5	241Am	2 x 10-14	3 x 10-8
129I	7 x 10-11	5 x 10-7
a Derived concentration guides (DCGs) are from DOE Order 5400.5 and are based on an effective dose equivalent of 100 mrem/yr. b Based on 241Am, 239Pu, and 240Pu. c Based on the most restrictive beta emitter (228Ra). d Submersion in a cloud of gas is more restrictive than the inhalation pathway.

Other radiation protection guidelines (Pre-Chernobyl):

Federal Emergency Management Agency. Radiological emergency preparedness exercise manual. Report No. FEMA REP-15. FEMA, Washington, D.C.

This undated citation is another component of the FDA/FEMA revised PAGs and will be reviewed as soon as we can obtain a copy.

Federal Radiation Council. (1960-61). Background material for the development of radiation protection standards: Reports 1 and 2. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.

Cited in Part 2 of this section of RADNET, the PAGs or protective action guidelines in this handbook are reproduced in Table I.

Federal Radiation Council. (1965). Radiation protection guidance for federal agencies. Federal Register. 30. pg. 6953-5.

Federal Register. (April 16, 1992). Action plan to ensure timely cleanup of site decommissioning management plan sites. Federal Register. 57 FR 13389.

Federal Register. (November 30, 1977). Notice of proposed federal radiation protection guidance. Federal Register. 42(230). pg. 60956-60959.

Franke, B., Kruger, E., Stenhilber-Schwab, B., van de Sand, H. and Teufel, D. (1980). Radiation exposure to the public from radioactive emissions of nuclear power stations. Institut fur Energie und Umweltforschung, Munchen, Germany.

Gofman, J.W. (1976). The plutonium controversy. JAMA. 236(3). pg. 284-286.

• Gofman is urging that radiation protection guidelines for plutonium be reconsidered because its carcinogenicity had been greatly underestimated.

• Nearly useless: contains no protection action guidelines.

International Commission on Radiological Protection. (1977). Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. ICRP Publication 26, Annals of the ICRP 1(3), Pergamon Press.

International Commission on Radiological Protection. (1979). Limits for intakes of radionuclides by workers. ICRP Publication 30, Part 1, Annals of the ICRP, Pergamon Press.

Lester, T.F. (1987). The effect of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the USSR on the export of milk products from the United Kingdom. Journal of the Society of Dairy Technology. 40(2). pg. 59-61.

• This article notes the extremely low protective action guidelines for general radioactive contamination of milk imported into various foreign countries, ranging from 10 Bq/kg in the Philippines and 70 Bq/kg in Kuwait to 180 Bq/kg in Malaysia. Since powdered milk has a concentration eight times that of fresh milk, the EEC norm of 370 Bq/l of fresh milk was not acceptable in many foreign countries at the time of the Chernobyl accident. Fresh milk contamination levels in England and Scotland on May 6, 1986 had been noted as being well above 600 Bq/l for ¹³¹I; these levels dropped down to 10 Bq/l or less during July and the following months. Cesium contamination, especially in dry milk has proven to be a much more serious long-term problem than had been anticipated prior to the accident.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. (1975). Alpha-emitting particles in lungs: Recommendations of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. NCRP Report No. 46. NCRP, Washington, D.C.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. (1975). Natural background radiation in the United States: Recommendations of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. Report No. 45. NCRP, Washington, D.C.

• This text makes the observation that by 1967 tritium (3H) releases from thermonuclear weapons tests had completely overshadowed the natural inventory of tritium.
• Contains no protective action guidelines.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP). (1976). Environmental radiation measurements. NCRP Report No. 50. NCRP, Bethesda, Maryland.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP). (1976). A handbook of radioactivity measurement procedures. NCRP Report No. 58, 2nd ed. NCRP, Bethesda, Maryland.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP). (1976). Instrumentation and monitoring methods for radiation protection. NCRP Report No. 57. NCRP, Bethesda, Maryland.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP). (1976). Tritium measurement techniques. NCRP Report No. 47. NCRP, Bethesda, Maryland.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. (1979). Basic radiation protection criteria. NCRP Report No. 39. NCRP, Washington D.C.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. (1987). Recommendations on limits of exposure to ionizing radiation. Report No. 91. NCRP, Washington, D.C.

National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. (1987). Ionizing radiation exposure of the population of the United States. Report No. 93. NCRP, Washington, D.C.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (1978). Planning basis for the development of state and local government radiological emergency response plans in support of light water nuclear power plants. U.S. NRC, Washington, D.C.

• The precursor to the revised protection action guidelines issued by the FDA and FEMA in 1982.

• Another precursor to the revised protection action guidelines issued by the FDA and FEMA in 1982.

• This report is a component of the EPA report Manual of Protective Action Guides and Protective Actions for Nuclear Incidents, and enumerates the numerical basis for the revised radiation standards.

U.S. Department of Energy. (1991). Environmental regulatory guide for radiological effluent monitoring and environmental surveillance. (DOE/EH-0173). U.S. DOE, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Manual of protective action guides for nuclear incidents. Report No. EPA 520-1/75-001. EPA, Washington, D.C.

• The updated version of this manual (1992) is cited and annotated above.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (1987). Radiation protection guidance to federal agencies for occupational exposure. Federal Register. 52.

World Health Organization. (1986). Summary review of measurement results relevant for dose assessment, update revision no. 7. WHO, Copenhagen.
 

B. Post-Chernobyl Radiation Protection Guidelines

The following radiological protection guidelines date from after the Chernobyl accident and were issued by various European international governmental organizations (EEC, NEA, IAEA, Euratom). Many of these are referenced in Chernobyl: Ten years on: Radiological and Health Impact. OECD, 1995. (see RAD 10: 2).

Boeri, G. and Viktorsson, C. (1988). Emergency planning practices and criteria in the OECD countries after the Chernobyl accident: A critical review. OECD/NEA, Paris.

Crick, Malcolm. (1996). Nuclear and radiation safety: Guidance for emergency response. IAEA Bulletin. 38(1). pg. 23.

• The intervention level table from this paper is reprinted below under the 1994 IAEA citation Safety Series No. 109.

• laying down maximum permitted levels of radioactive contamination of foodstuffs and of feedingstuffs following a nuclear accident or any other case of radiological emergency.

• laying down maximum permitted levels of radioactive contamination in minor foodstuffs following a nuclear accident or any other case of radiological emergency.

• on the special conditions for exporting foodstuffs and feedingstuffs following a nuclear accident or any other case of radiological emergency.

IAEA. (1994). Guidelines for agricultural countermeasures following an accidental release of radionuclides. IAEA/FAO Technical Report Series No. 363. IAEA, Vienna.

IAEA. (1994). Safety Series No. 109, Intervention criteria in a nuclear or radiation emergency. STI/PUB/900. IAEA, Vienna. pp. 117.

• "This Safety Guide, published in 1994, represents the international consensus reached on principles for intervention and numerical values for generic intervention levels. These principles and values subsequently became the basis of intervention guidance in the Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources, which have been issued jointly by the IAEA, FAO, ILO, NEA, PAHO, and WHO." (Crick, 1996).
• The table below is excerpted from Crick, 1996.

The Swedish company Studsvik RadWaste has developed a process it claims will reduce activity levels to below the IAEA release limit of 1 Bq/g.  This process is called strong ozone decontamination process (SODP) and is used to recycle metals from decommissioned steam generators.

IAEA. (1996). Safety Series No. 115, International basic safety standards for protection against ionizing radiation and for the safety of radiation. STI/PUB/996. Jointly sponsored by FAO, IAEA, ILO, OECD/NEA, PAHO, and WHO. IAEA, Vienna. pp. 353.

IAEA. (August, 1997). Generic assessment procedures for determining protective actions during a reactor accident. IAEA-TECDOC-955. IAEA, Vienna. pp. 259.

• A comprehensive guideline to nuclear accident management procedures. Unfortunately, this text doesn't include clear and comprehensible contamnation guidelines.

International Commission on Radiological Protection. (1989). Age dependent doses to members of the public from intake of radionuclides: Part I. ICRP publication No. 56. Pergamon Press, Oxford.

International Commission on Radiological Protection. (1992). Principles for intervention for protection of the public in a radiological emergency. Annals of the ICRP. Publication 63. 22(4).

MacLachlan, Ann. (December 10, 1998). Belgium cancels reprocessing, orders review of nuclear future. Nucleonics Week. 39(50). pg. 1.

• "Measurements showed [the] surface contamination [of a spent fuel cask] exceeded the strict 4 becquerel/square centimeter limit in one place."

OECD/NEA. (1989). Emergency planning in case of nuclear accident: Technical aspects. Proceedings of a Joint NEA/CEC Workshop, Brussels, June 1989. OECD/NEA, Paris.

OECD/NEA. (1990). Protection of the population in the event of a nuclear accident. OECD/NEA, Paris.

OECD/NEA. (1995). Short-term countermeasures after a nuclear emergency. Proceedings of an NEA Workshop, June 1994, Stockholm. OECD/NEA, Paris.

Richards, J.I. et. al. (1996). Standards and criteria established by international organizations for agricultural aspects of radiological emergency situations. Proc. of NEA Workshop on the Agricultural Issues Associated with Nuclear Emergencies, (June 1995). OECD/NEA, Paris.

World Health Organization. (1988). Derived intervention levels for radionuclides in food. WHO, Geneva.

• "The calculated values are of necessity based on an effective dose of 5 mSv for each nuclide in isolation in a single food category, since it is not possible to generalize regarding which nuclides will be most importent in each food category after an accident." (pg. 26).
• Table 5. (pg. 26).

Guideline values for derived intervention levels (Bq/kg)
Class of Radionuclide	Cereals	Roots and tubers	Vegetables	Fruit	Meat	Milk	Fish	Drinking water
I: High dose per unit intake factor (10-6 Sv/Bq)	35	50	80	70	100	45	350	7
II. Low dose per unit intake factor (10-8 Sv/Bq)	3,500	5,000	8,000	7,000	10,000	4,500	35,000	700

• Table 6. (pg. 27).

Guideline values for derived intervention levels for [milk in] infants (Bq/l)
90Sr	160
131I	1600a
137Cs	1800
239Pu	7
a Based on a mean life of 11.5 days for 131I and an organ dose of 50 mSv to the thyroid.