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Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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The U.S. Million Person Study of Low-Dose-Rate Health Effects
There is a critical knowledge gap regarding the health consequences of exposure to radiation received gradually over time. While there is a plethora of studies on the risks of adverse outcomes from both acute and high-dose exposures, including the landmark study of atomic bomb survivors, these are not characteristic of the chronic exposure to low-dose radiation encountered in occupational and public settings. In addition, smaller cohorts have limited numbers leading to reduced statistical power.
Mohammad Modarres, Steven Krahn, James O’Brien
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 3 | March 2021 | Pages 424-440
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1805258
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper outlines research on understanding, characterizing, and managing conservatisms in safety analyses. This research includes a review of national and international approaches for developing and using conservative and best-estimate analyses. A probabilistic approach is discussed to support reducing conservatism while maintaining safety margins. An example of the proposed approach is applied to two case studies for nonreactor nuclear facilities. The objective of this work is to provide a means for better understanding and managing risks associated with nuclear facilities. The results from these examples show that conservative estimates could lead to excessive safety margins when compared to the best-estimate values; the amount of excess margin may be as high as one or more orders of magnitude.