1. Update on New Federal Guidance for Dose and Risk Assessment
LLW Forum Meeting
October 17, 2017
Presented by Michael Boyd
US EPA Radiation Protection Division

2. Overview Background and history of Federal Guidance
Presidential Guidance
Technical Reports
Review of current FG technical reports in use today
Federal Guidance for radionuclide-specific dose and risk assessment
Status and update of new Federal Guidance technical reports

3. What is Federal Guidance?3

4. What Is Federal Guidance?
The Federal guidance function is to "...advise the President on radiation matters, directly or indirectly affecting the public, including guidance for all Federal agencies in the formulation of radiation standards...”
- Authority transferred from Federal Radiation Council to EPA Administrator in 1970
- President signs final guidance
EPA has used Federal Guidance to
- Recommend New Limits for Uranium Workers
- Recommend Revised General Standards for Workers
- Issue Guidance on the Use of Diagnostic X-rays 4

5. Two Kinds of Federal Guidance
Presidential Guidance
Radiation protection principles and policy recommendations to Federal agencies
Signed by the President
Technical Reports
Methodologies and coefficients for radiation dose and risk assessments
RP guidance for diagnostic and interventional x-ray procedures
Background information to support Presidential Guidance and standards
Signed by EPA 5

6. Two Kinds of Federal Guidance
Technical Guidance
Presidential Guidance 6

7. History of Federal Guidance
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000…
Radiation Protection Guidance for Federal Agencies: EISENHOWER 1960 (FRC)
Underground Mining of U Ore: NIXON (FRC)
Guidance for Occupational Exposure (revised 1960 guidance): REAGAN (EPA)
Tech. Report 14
RP Guidance for Diagnostic and Interventional X-ray Procedures
2014 (EPA)
Guidance on Diagnostic X-rays: CARTER (EPA)
Supplemental FG: KENNEDY (FRC)
Tech. Report External Exposure DCFs (EPA)
Tech. Report 9 Background for Diagnostic X-ray Guidance (EPA)
Tech. Reports 1, 2, 5, & 7 Background for Rad. Protection Stds. 1960, 1961, 1965 (FRC)
Tech Reports 3, 4, 6 Fallout Studies 1962, 1963, 1964 (FRC)
Tech. Report 10 Radioactive Concentration Guides (out of date) (FRC)
Tech. Report ALIs, DACs, & DCFs (current, ICRP 26) (EPA)
Tech. Report Cancer Risk Coefficients (EPA)
Tech. Report 8 Guidance for Control of Hazards in U Mines 1967 (FRC)
Presidential Guidance
Technical Reports 7

8. Current FG Technical Reports
Federal Guidance Series
FGR 11
FGR 12
FGR 13
Subject
Internal DCFS
Ingestion
Inhalation
External DCFs
Cancer Risk Coefficients
International Consensus Basis
ICRP 26/30
ICRP 60+ 8

9. FGR 11: Internal Dose Coefficients
FGR 11 dose conversion factors (now called dose coefficients) used to calculate effective dose to reference adult from ingestion and inhalation of 825 radionuclides (Sv/Bq)
Provides ALIs and DACs*
FGR 11 dosimetry is out of date (based on ICRP 26 and 30 from 1976); but still needed to comply with some US regulations
More recent ICRP 60+ dose coefficients can be found on FGR 13 CD Supplement
* ALIs = Allowable Limits of Intake; DACs = Derived Air Concentrations 9

10. FGR 12: External Dose Coefficients
FGR 12 dose coefficients used to calculate effective dose to reference adult from exposure to uniform radionuclide concentrations in air, water and soil
Issued as companion to FGR 11
Dose coefficients given for the 825 radionuclides found in ICRP Publication 38 10

11. FGR 13: Cancer Risk Coefficients
FGR 13 (September 1999) provides:
Age-averaged risk per becquerel for food ingestion, water ingestion, and inhalation (800 + radionuclides)
Age-averaged risk/year of exposure per becquerel/ gram of radionuclides in soil
Risk per unit organ absorbed dose based on EPA Blue Book (Estimating Radiogenic Cancer Risks, June 1994)
Internal dosimetry and biokinetics calculated using ORNL DCAL code 11

12. FGR 13 CD Supplement
CD Supplement includes all the data files used to calculate risk coefficients in FGR 13
A data viewer allows the user to look up age-, gender-, and organ-specific risks per radionuclide
ICRP 60+ dose coefficients are also available on the CD Supplement 12

13. Updates Underway FGR 16 FGR 15 Federal Guidance Series
(in interagency review now)
FGR 16
(1st Complete draft for review – Sept. 2017)
Subject
External Dose Coefficients
(Worker and Public*)
Internal Dose and Risk Coefficients (Worker and Public*)
International Consensus Basis
ICRP 103
* Public includes 6 ages and male and female for ages 15 and adult 13

14. Revised Dose Coefficients (FGR 15 & 16)
Dose coefficients for over 1200 radionuclides
Reference Ages 0, 1, 5, 10, 15 and adult
Separate male, female and sex-averaged DCs for ages 15 year old and adult
FGR 15 (external) = Sv/s per Bq/m3 in air and water and Sv/s per Bq/g in soil
FGR 16 (internal) = Sv/Bq ingested or inhaled
Radiation weighting factors based on ICRP 103
Tissue weighting factors based on ICRP 103
Dose coefficients reflect latest radionuclide decay data in ICRP Publication 107

15. FGR 16 Update to Risk Coefficients
Update age-averaged excess cancer risk coefficients in FGR 13 to reflect:
Current dosimetry and biokinetics for organ absorbed doses using a combination of ICRP voxel phantoms (where available) and ORNL stylized phantoms
BEIR VII and new EPA Blue Book (EPA Radiogenic Cancer Risk Models and Projections for the U.S. Population, April 2011) for risk per unit organ absorbed dose

16. Science Behind the Federal Guidance
Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR)
Reports by US National Academies of Science
Seven to date. Reports IV and VI describe risk from alpha-emitting radionuclides, including radon
Reports III, V, and VII describe risk from low linear energy transfer (LET) radiation such as photons
United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR)
Sources, Effects and Risks of Ionizing Radiation
22+ reports 1958 – (UNSCEAR.org)
Ongoing work 16

17. EPA Blue Book – April 2011 version

18. Radiation Risk Assessment

19. DCAL Internal Emitters Calculations19

20. Federal Guidance Reports in the Future
Federal Guidance Technical Reports are tools for radiation dose and risk assessment, and are not policy documents. Future legislators, regulators and the public will decide how radiation protection policy will change in the face of new science (the -omics revolution, individualized medicine, better information on risks at low doses, etc.). Federal Guidance Reports can continue to support implementation and compliance needs in the future.

21. THANK YOU!
Any questions?