1980 Rolf Sievert Lecture “Some Non-Scientific Influences on Radiation Standards and Practice” Dr. Lauriston S. Taylor Jerusalem, Israel March, 1980

Dr. Lauriston Sale Taylor (1902-2004), a radiological physicist at the National Bureau of Standards, was named as one of two U.S. appointees to the predecessor of the ICRU in 1928 and helped organize what became the ICRP that same year. In 1929 he was named chair of the U.S. Advisory Committee on X-ray and Radium Protection, which later became the NCRP. He served the latter as President until 1977.

His remark at a UNESCO conference in Paris in 1957 that “…the establishment of permissible levels of radiation exposure is not basically a scientific problem. Indeed, it is more a matter of philosophy, of morality, and of sheer wisdom” is frequently quoted to the present day. “I feel strongly that we must turn to the much larger group of citizens generally, most of whom have to be regarded as well-meaning and sincere, but rarely well-informed about the radiation problems that they have to deal with.”

His remarks foreshadowed the current practice of stakeholder engagement. Taylor’s foresight has been realized in numerous efforts, including the current IRPA initiative on public communication, and the joint ICRP/IRPA effort on the ethical basis of radiation protection. Lessons learned from the Chernobyl and Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant accidents are moving us not merely to stakeholder engagement, but to stakeholder empowerment, in which the stakeholders themselves become the decision makers, and determine such matters as acceptable exposure levels, remediation priorities, and waste management options for themselves.

As a result, the emerging role of the radiation protection professional is to serve as an independent, unbiased source of scientific information to provide input to the stakeholders, rather than to receive input from them about their concerns and make the decisions for them.