Collective dose as a performance measure for occupational radiation protection programs: Issues and recommendations

Collective dose is one of the performance measures used at many US Department of Energy (DOE) contractor facilities to quantitatively assess the objectives of the radiation protection program. It can also be used as a management tool to improve the program for keeping worker doses as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA). Collective dose is used here to mean the sum of all total effective dose equivalent values for all workers in a specified group over a specified time. It is often used as a surrogate estimate of radiological risk. In principle, improvements in radiation protection programs and procedures will result in reduction of collective dose, all other things being equal. Within the DOE, most frequently, a single collective dose number, which may or may not be adjusted for workload and other factors, is used as a performance measure for a contractor. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the use of collective dose as a performance measure for ALARA programs at DOE sites.