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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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INL makes a case for eliminating ALARA and setting higher dose limits
A report just released by Idaho National Laboratory reviews decades of radiation protection standards and research on the health effects of low-dose radiation and recommends that the current U.S. annual occupational dose limit of 5,000 mrem be maintained without applying ALARA—the “as low as reasonably achievable” regulatory concept first introduced in 1971—below that threshold.
Noting that epidemiological studies “have consistently failed to demonstrate statistically significant health effects at doses below 10,000 mrem delivered at low dose rates,” the report also recommends “future consideration of increasing this limit to 10,000 mrem/year with appropriate cumulative-dose constraints.”
Luke J. Kersting, Douglass Henderson, Alex Robinson, Eli Moll
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 4 | April 2019 | Pages 346-367
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1525976
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Verification and validation tests have been performed for the single scattering Evaluated Electron Data Library (EEDL) implemented in the Framework for Research in Nuclear ScIence and Engineering (FRENSIE). Tests compared simulation results with experimental results for electron multiple scattering and low-energy backscattering coefficients as well as simulation results from MCNP6.2. Several bivariate grid policies (unit base, correlated, and unit base correlated) and elastic scattering implementations (coupled versus decoupled) were tested. FRENSIE showed good agreement with MCNP6.2 when using the same grid policy and elastic implementation. Logarithmic-logarithmic grid policies were found to best match experimental results. For multiple scattering, an increase in accuracy was seen when using coupled elastic scattering. When using correlated or unit-base-correlated grid policies, computational results matched the experimental measurements of Hanson et al. [Phys. Rev., Vol. 84, p. 634,(1951)] for the peak amplitude of the angular distribution to within 7% and for to within , but the unit-base grid policy showed error up to 38% and 24%, respectively. For backscattering coefficients, all results below 1 keV showed large error caused by insufficiencies in the data at that energy range. The correlated and unit-base-correlated grid policies overestimated the backscattering coefficient experimental results above 1 keV, but the unit-base grid policy was in the range of the measured experimental backscattering coefficients.
