Tightening Norms Again and Opening to the Public, 1965–2023

During the twenty-five years from 1965 to 1990, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) again significantly tightened its basic radiation protection norms, both for workers in nuclear facilities and for the general population. This tightening was unexpected, as the Commission had thought its established norms adequate and perhaps too restrictive. The driver for lowering permissible doses was not the dozens of military accidents or even civilian incidents, the worst of which occurred at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. The latter contributed to heightened public risk awareness, but the main public concern was radiation from routine reactor operations, amplified in professional circles by recalculation of doses delivered to Japanese survivors at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both professionals, especially radiation protection specialists, and the public feared low levels of lengthy radiation exposure would cause not only genetic effects but also cancer. The tightened norms would find acceptance not only in countries with technical capability and presence in the ICRP, but elsewhere as well. Universal application of norms continued to rely not on legal requirements or geographical diversity but rather on respect for independent epistemic authority. In the years since 1990, the ICRP has clarified its ethical bases and broadened stakeholder participation, shoring up its legitimacy.