Skip to main content

Nuclear Health and Safety: Consensus on Acceptable Radiation Risk to the Public Is Lacking

RCED-94-190 Published: Sep 19, 1994. Publicly Released: Oct 26, 1994.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the consistency and compatibility of federal radiation standards, focusing on: (1) the various limits on public exposure to radiation; (2) the various protective strategies associated with the standards; and (3) whether the standards as a whole provide a coherent, complete federal framework for public radiation protection.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency To better unify federal radiation protection policy, the Administrator, EPA, in cooperation with the Chairman, NRC, should take the lead in sustaining and broadening the ongoing EPA-NRC harmonization effort to include the effective participation of other agencies and the Committee on Interagency Radiation Research and Policy Coordination in pursuing interagency consensus on preferred radiation dose and risk calculation methods and radiation protection strategies, as well as an overall consensus on how much radiation risk to the public is acceptable.
Closed – Implemented
EPA and NRC have formed the Interagency Steering Committee on Radiation Standards, which is to expedite the resolution and coordination of regulatory issues associated with radiation standards. The Committee, the membership of which includes representatives from DOD, DOE, OSHA, and DOT, has the objectives of facilitating a consensus on acceptable levels of radiation risk to the public and workers, promoting consistent risk assessment and risk management approaches in setting implementation standards for occupational and public protection from ionizing radiation, promoting completeness and coherence of federal standards for radiation protection, and identifying interagency issues and coordinating their resolution.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Environmental monitoringHazardous substancesInteragency relationsRadiation exposure hazardsRadiation safetyRadioactive waste disposalRegulatory agenciesSafety regulationSafety standardsStandards evaluation