New NRC methodology for estimating biological risks from exposure to ionizing radiation

In licensing commercial nuclear power reactors, in the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers the potential health effects from the release of radioactive effluents. This entails reliance on epidemiological study results and interpretations. The BEIR III report is a principal source of information but as newer information becomes available, it is desirable to include this in NRC models. To facilitate both the estimation of potential health effects and the evaluation of epidemiological study results, the NRC has supported the development of a new computer code (SPAHR). This new code utilizes much more comprehensive demographic models than did the previously used codes (CAIRD and BIERMOD). SPAHR can accommodate variations in all the principal demographic statistics such as age distribution, age-specific computing risks, and sex ratio. Also SPAHR can project effects over a number of generations