Permissible dose : a history of radiation protection in the twentieth century / J. Samuel Walker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walker, J. Samuel, Author.

Contributor:

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nuclear energy--Law and legislation--United States--History.

Nuclear energy.

Radiation--Safety measures--History.

Radiation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (183 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2000]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How much radiation is too much? J. Samuel Walker examines the evolution, over more than a hundred years, of radiation protection standards and efforts to ensure radiation safety for nuclear workers and for the general public. The risks of radiation-caused by fallout from nuclear bomb testing, exposure from medical or manufacturing procedures, effluents from nuclear power, or radioactivity from other sources-have aroused more sustained controversy and public fear than any other comparable industrial or environmental hazard. Walker clarifies the entire radiation debate, showing that permissible dose levels are a key to the principles and practices that have prevailed in the field of radiation protection since the 1930's, and to their highly charged political and scientific history as well.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Figures

Preface

I. The Discovery of Radiation and Its Hazards

2. The Debate over Nuclear Power and Radiation

3. The Role of Federal Agencies in Radiation Protection

4. New Controversies, New Standards

5. The Ambiguities of Radiation Effects

Essay on Sources

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786612356292

9781282356290

1282356291

9780520924840

0520924843

9781597348041

159734804X

OCLC:

475931658