Consideration on the collective dose, with respect to radioactive waste management

The collective dose has been understood as the amount of risk accepted by the public and is of great uncertainty, whereas it can be clearly defined for radiation professionals. This review summarized the concept of the collective dose hitherto including that in foreign countries and Japan and discussed its actual application to the public and to the radioactive waste management. The most important point of radiation protection for the public was shown to keep the principle of 1 mSv/y as the dose limit of a man. The collective dose can be used both as an index of optimization of radiation protection for the public and as a predictive measure of radiation effects on the public. ICRP and IAEA proposed the dose of 1 man·Sv as an absolute index (not as a dose limit). It might be impossible or meaningless to discuss the collective dose of the extremely low level radiation in the big public of >100,000 persons for periods exceeding several hundreds years. (K.H.)