Radiation protection issues in galactic cosmic ray risk assessment
Radiation protection involves the limitation of exposure to below threshold doses for direct (or deterministic) effects and a knowledge of the risk of stochastic effects after low doses. The principal stochastic risk associated with low dose rate galactic cosmic rays is the incr
Selection note: Curated for its explicit treatment of uncertainty in galactic-cosmic-ray health-risk assessment and the limits of translating terrestrial and accelerator data to crews.
Evidence boundary: The record is an older synthesis and this pass did not reproduce its uncertainty calculations or update every input. It is risk-method context, not current quantitative medical evidence.
Stable record
ntrs-20040090212
Topic
radiation-environment
Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Publisher
Legacy CDMS
Authors
Sinclair, W. K.
Year
1994
Editorial state
metadata curated editorial draft
Reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
Official link checked
2026-07-25
Source-supplied abstract
Radiation protection involves the limitation of exposure to below threshold doses for direct (or deterministic) effects and a knowledge of the risk of stochastic effects after low doses. The principal stochastic risk associated with low dose rate galactic cosmic rays is the increased risk of cancer. Estimates of this risk depend on two factors (a) estimates of cancer risk for low-LET radiation and (b) values of the appropriate radiation weighting factors, WR, for the high-LET radiations of galactic cosmic rays. Both factors are subject to considerable uncertainty. The low-LET cancer risk derived from the late effects of the atomic bombs is vulnerable to a number of uncertainties including especially that from projection in time, and from extrapolation from high to low dose rate. Nevertheless, recent low dose studies of workers and others tend to confirm these estimates. WR, relies on biological effects studied mainly in non-human systems. Additional laboratory studies could reduce the uncertainties in WR and thus produce a more confident estimate of the overall risk of galactic cosmic rays.
Abstract text has not been adopted as a GShips conclusion.
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The record is an older synthesis and this pass did not reproduce its uncertainty calculations or update every input. It is risk-method context, not current quantitative medical evidence.
Source-supplied titles, abstracts, authors, and dates may require correction against the canonical full text.
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People, review, and conflicts
Prepared by
GShips Project
Editorial status
metadata-curated-editorial-draft
Editorial reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
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pending
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Last content edit
Not recorded separately
Official source or link verified
2026-07-25
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The maintainer intends to explore a commercial venture based on some GShips work. No entity, outside funding, customer, sponsor, or indexed-organization relationship currently exists.