What is the public dose limit, and does the accident analysis meet it?

What is the public dose limit, and does the accident analysis meet it?

• A. Never more than 10 mrem/year; max hypothetical accident won't dose near that limit.
• B. Never more than 100 mrem/year; accidents may exceed.
• C. Public dose limit is 1 rem per year.
• D. Public dose limit is 0.01 rem per year.

Answer: (A)

The main idea is that there is a regulatory cap on how much radiation a member of the public can receive from a licensed facility in a year, and the design and operation must keep actual exposures under that cap. In this item, the limit is stated as 10 mrem per year. The accident analysis shows that even in the worst-case hypothetical accident, the dose to the public would be far below that limit, so the analysis meets the requirement. For additional context, 10 mrem/year is 0.01 rem/year, which is well under the more commonly cited public limit of 100 mrem/year (0.1 rem/year) in many regulations, providing a comfortable safety margin.

The main idea is that there is a regulatory cap on how much radiation a member of the public can receive from a licensed facility in a year, and the design and operation must keep actual exposures under that cap. In this item, the limit is stated as 10 mrem per year. The accident analysis shows that even in the worst-case hypothetical accident, the dose to the public would be far below that limit, so the analysis meets the requirement. For additional context, 10 mrem/year is 0.01 rem/year, which is well under the more commonly cited public limit of 100 mrem/year (0.1 rem/year) in many regulations, providing a comfortable safety margin.