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Underground Uses of Nuclear Energy Part 2; Hearings before the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution of the Committee on Public Works United States Senate Ninety-First Congress Second Session on S. 3042 A Bill to Provide for a Study and Evaluation of the Air and Water Pollution and Other Environmental Effects of Underground Uses of Nuclear energy for Excavation and for Other Purposes August 5 1970

1971 · Best.-Nr. 80201 — Washington DC: U. S. Government Printing Office 1971. Presumed First Edition First printing. Wraps. Good. Part 2 ONLY. iv 521-1804 pages. Illustrations. Maps. Figures. Tables. Footnotes. References. Cover has some wear and soiling. A major focus of this hearing was on radiation exposure and hazards. Among the witnesses were: Roger Egeberg Joseph Hennessey Clarence Larson James Ramey representatives of the Federal Radiation Council and John Totter then Director of the Biomedical Division of the Atomic Energy Commission. Radiation protection also known as radiological protection is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA as "The protection of people from harmful effects of exposure to ionizing radiation and the means for achieving this". Exposure can be from a source of radiation external to the human body or due to internal irradiation caused by the ingestion of radioactive contamination. Ionizing radiation is widely used in industry and medicine and can present a significant health hazard by causing microscopic damage to living tissue. There are two main categories of ionizing radiation health effects. At high exposures it can cause "tissue" effects also called "deterministic" effects due the certainty of them happening conventionally indicated by the unit gray and resulting in acute radiation syndrome. For low level exposures there can be statistically elevated risks of radiation-induced cancer called "stochastic effects" due to the uncertainty of them happening conventionally indicated by the unit sievert. Fundamental to radiation protection is the avoidance or reduction of dose using the simple protective measures of time distance and shielding. The duration of exposure should be limited to that necessary the distance from the source of radiation should be maximized and the source shielded wherever possible. To measure personal dose uptake in occupational or emergency exposure for external radiation personal dosimeters are used and for internal dose to due to ingestion of radioactive contamination bioassay techniques are applied. For radiation protection and dosimetry assessment the International Commission on Radiation Protection ICRP and International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements ICRU publish recommendations and data which is used to calculate the biological effects on the human body of certain levels of radiation and thereby advise acceptable dose uptake limits. U. S. Government Printing Office paperback