When Congress passed the 1946 Atomic Energy Act, which estab­lished aec, it gave that organization the responsibility for assuring the safety of atomic energy workers as well as the public at large. The unusual step of vesting this responsibility in a federal agency rather than in the states, was taken for a variety of reasons, among which were the fact that much of the required technical knowledge was then classified; the special­ists who had this knowledge were, for the most part, located in a few large laboratories owned by the federal government; and Congress recognized the basically interstate nature of the risks of this new industry.

Before I begin a more detailed critique of the standards, it seems ap­propriate to summarize the record of the aec to date. There have been no known radiation injuries to any member of the public from any of the ci­vilian activities of aec. Among the approximately 100,000 employees of the aec and its contractors, there have been six fatal accidents owing to nuclear accidents, all of which occurred in the course of experimental re­search. There has been one additional death in a privately operated indus­trial company licensed by the aec. Among this large population of indus­trial workers, I have been unable to find a single record of injury from the cumulative effects of exposure.

During the same period, a total of 276 on-the-job accidental deaths have occurred from all causes — vehicle accidents, falls, and so forth. Thus, the safety record of the aec is very good; its occupational fatality rate is about 25 per cent of the average for all industry, as published by the National Safety Council (aec, 1943-1967). This excellent record of occupational safety is cited simply to illustrate that the aec has demon­strated a high degree of concern with protection of its personnel. It has demonstrated similar concern with public safety.

Because of a technicality in the Atomic Energy Act, responsibility for the health of uranium miners was not preempted by aec, but has con­tinued to reside with the states. The radiation safety record in the mines has been far less satisfactory, and more than 100 deaths from lung cancer have resulted from the cumulative exposure to the radioactivity of the mine atmospheres (Donaldson, 1969). It is regrettable that federal pre­emption of health and safety matters in the atomic energy program did not include the mining industry, because this tragic record might have been avoided had the aec standards of permissible occupational exposure been enforced.

Another governmental agency concerned with radiation protection is the Federal Radiation Council, which consists of representatives of sev­eral federal departments and agencies. It was established by presidential order in 1959 to assure a consistent governmental approach to radiation protection matters. The Council has promulgated a number of radiation protection guides to assist in evaluation of hazards from nuclear weapons testing and, more recently, for control of radiation exposure in uranium mines.