A Review of the Dose Reconstruction Program of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

416 Pages·2003·7.75 MB·English

by  National Research Council, Committee to Review the Dose Reconstruction Program of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

A REVIEW OF THE DOSE
RECONSTRUCTION PROGRAM
OF THE DEFENSE THREAT REDUCTION AGENCY
Committee to Review the Dose Reconstruction Program
of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Board on Radiation Effects Research
Division on Earth and Life Studies
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the
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appropriate balance.
This study was supported by contract DTRA01-01-C-0012 between the National Academy of Sci-
ences and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommen-
dations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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COVER PHOTO. Soldiers watching atomic-bomb detonation at Yucca Flat, Nevada. This photo is
Shot DOG in which a 21.5-kiloton device was dropped from a B-50 bomber in the BUSTER-
JANGLE series of tests on November 1, 1951. This photo was also published in the November 12,
1951, issue of Life Magazine.
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COMMITTEE TO REVIEW THE DOSE RECONSTRUCTION
PROGRAM OF THE DEFENSE THREAT REDUCTION AGENCY
(DTRA)
JOHN E. TILL (Chairman), President, Risk Assessment Corporation,
Neeses, SC
HAROLD L. BECK, Environmental Measurements Laboratory (ret.),
New York, NY
WILLIAM J. BRADY, Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Co., Inc. (ret.),
Las Vegas, NV
THOMAS F. GESELL, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID
DAVID G. HOEL, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC
ERIC E. KEARSLEY (Member until 12/10/2001), Silver Spring, MD
DAVID C. KOCHER, SENES Oak Ridge Inc., Oak Ridge, TN
JONATHAN D. MORENO, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
CLARICE R. WEINBERG, National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF
EVAN B. DOUPLE, Director, Board on Radiation Effects Research
ISAF AL-NABULSI, Study Director
DIANNE STARE, Research Assistant
DORIS E. TAYLOR, Staff Assistant
NORMAN GROSSBLATT, Senior Editor
SPONSOR’S PROJECT OFFICER
D. MICHAEL SCHAEFFER, Defense Threat Reduction Agency
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BOARD ON RADIATION EFFECTS RESEARCH
S. JAMES ADELSTEIN (Chairman), Harvard Medical School,
Boston, MA
R. J. MICHAEL FRY (chairman until 6/30/02), Indianapolis, IN
JOEL S. BEDFORD, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
VALERIE BERAL, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
JAMES E. CLEAVER, UCSF Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA
SARAH S. DONALDSON, Stanford University Medical Center,
Stanford, CA
SHARON L. DUNWOODY, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
EDWARD R. EPP, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, Boston, MA
HELEN H. EVANS (member until 6/30/02), Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, OH
DANIEL KREWSKI, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
WILLIAM F. MORGAN, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
THEODORE L. PHILLIPS, University of California, San Francisco, CA
FRANKLYN G. PRENDERGAST, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center,
Rochester, MN
ANDREW M. SESSLER, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
Berkeley, CA
DANIEL O. STRAM, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
PAUL L. ZEIMER, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF
EVAN B. DOUPLE, Director, Board on Radiation Effects Research
ISAF AL-NABULSI, Senior Program Officer
RICK JOSTES, Senior Program Officer
CATHERINE S. BERKLEY, Administrative Associate
TAJUANA CLAYTON, Project Assistant
BENJAMIN HAMLIN, Research Assistant (until 12/13/02)
DIANNE STARE, Research Assistant
DORIS E. TAYLOR, Staff Assistant
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A Note on the Units of Measurement Used
in this Report
It has been the custom of the Board on Radiation Effects Research (BRER) to
use the International System of Units (SI) in its reports. In this report, however,
exceptions are made in presenting data on radiation exposure, radiation dose, and
activity of radionuclides. In all such cases, traditional non-SI units and their special
names are used. Thus, exposure in air is given in roentgen (R), absorbed dose in
rad, equivalent dose in body organs or tissues in rem,1 and activity of radionuclides
in curies (Ci). Decimal submultiples of the units also are used. For example, equiva-
lent dose may be given in millirem (mrem), or one thousandth (10–3) of a rem, and
activity may be given in microcuries, or one millionth of a curie (µCi), or in
nanocuries, or one billionth of a curie (nCi). The traditional units are used in this
report because they have been used exclusively in all dose reconstructions for
atomic veterans and in other documents of the dose reconstruction program and
therefore are the units with which veterans are familiar.
The relationships between the units used in this report and the corresponding
SI units and special names are given in the table below.
Special name
Quantity Previous unit SI unit of SI unit Conversion
Exposure roentgen (R) coulomb per 1 R = 2.58 × 10–4
kilogram (C kg–1) C kg–1
Absorbed rad joule per gray (Gy) 1 rad = 0.01 Gy
dose kilogram (J kg–1)
Equivalent rem joule per sievert (Sv) 1 rem = 0.01 Sv
dose kilogram (J kg–1)
Activity curie (Ci) disintegration per becquerel 1 Ci = 3.7 × 1010 Bq
second (s–1) (Bq)
1 In dose reconstructions for atomic veterans, the biologically significant dose to body organs or
tissues is called “dose equivalent.” In the present report, however, this quantity is called “equivalent
dose,” as recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP, 1991a).
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Preface
From 1945 through 1962, the US atmospheric nuclear weapons testing pro-
gram involved hundreds of thousands of military and civilian personnel, and
some of them were exposed to ionizing radiation. Veterans’ groups have since
been concerned that their members’ health was affected by radiation exposure
associated with participation in nuclear tests and have pressured Congress for
disability compensation. Several pieces of legislation have been passed to com-
pensate both military and civilian personnel for such health effects. Veterans’
concerns about the accuracy of reconstructed doses prompted Congress to have
the General Accounting Office (GAO) review the dose reconstruction program
used to estimate exposure. The GAO study concluded that dose reconstruction is
a valid method of estimating radiation dose and could be used as the basis of
compensation. It also recommended an independent review of the dose recon-
struction program. The result of that recommendation was a congressional man-
date that the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a part of the Depart-
ment of Defense, ask the National Research Council to conduct an independent
review of the dose reconstruction program. In response to that request, the Na-
tional Research Council established the Committee to Review the Dose Recon-
struction Program of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in the Board on
Radiation Effects Research (BRER).
The committee randomly selected sample records of doses that had been
reconstructed by DTRA and carefully evaluated them. The committee’s report
describes its findings and provides responses to many of the questions that have
been raised by the veterans.
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