CANCER MORTALITY AND RADIATION RISK-EVALUATION FOR THE TECHA RIVER POPULATION

The current nominal risk coefficients for radiation induced cancer are predominantly based on the follow-up of the atomic bomb survivors, i. e. a collective of persons exposed to a short duration, high dose rate exposure. It is one of the central issues in radiation protection, wh ether these data are representative also for protracted, low dose rate exposures. The International Commission for Radiological Protection h as postulated a dose and dose rate reduction factor in the derivation of the nominal risk coefficients; but this factor has been debated. Di rect observations on populations that were subjected to prolonged low dose exposures are, therefore, of especial interest, and a major contr ibution to the problem may result from the long term observation of th e population exposed at the beginning of the 1950s as a result of mass ive releases of fission products by a plutonium producing facility int o the Techa river in the southern Urals [1,2]. The present article dea ls with the cancer mortality in this population during the period 1950 -1982.