RADIATION EXPOSURES CAUSED BY THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY IN CHINA

Records of the nuclear industry in China covering the past 30 years in dicate that the nuclear industry has a good safety record and negligib le impact on the environment. Since the late 1970s the doses received by workers in the nuclear industry have declined. Average annual doses to all workers, except uranium miners, from occupational radiation ex posure have been below about 3 mSv, and the percentage of workers rece iving doses exceeding the annual dose limit of 50 mSv has been less th an 0.3%. The average annual dose received by underground workers has d ropped below 20 mSv. The doses to the critical groups in the nuclear f acilities have all been lower than 1 mSv. Epidemiological investigatio ns showed that there was no significant carcinogenic effect except in the case of uranium geological sectors and mines, and no acute lethal accidents have occurred nor acute radiation disease been found in the nuclear industry. In view of radiation protection optimisation,the nor malised collective dose, namely the collective dose delivered for prod uction or 1 unit of end products, is still high, especially in uranium mines where both the occupational radiation exposure and the exposure of the public are still higher than the typical values reported inter nationally.