The Government Accountability Office would like federal agencies to increase their collaboration on research into low-dose radiation, and it has recommended the Energy Department lead such an effort. But DOE hasn’t been eager to assume such a role, the GAO said in a Nov. 1 report.
The GAO said there were many reasons DOE would be a natural for leading government coordination on this issue. After all, the department has a chief role under the 1954 Atomic Energy Act for research related to the protection of worker health during cleanup of Cold War legacy nuclear sites. In addition, DOE has done much such research in the past. An Energy Department advisory committee said in 2016 that more research is needed into the cancer risk from low-dose radiation.
“DOE did not agree with our recommendation,” the GAO said in its report.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission also have legal responsibilities in this area and they set their own priorities in accordance with available funding and advisory board recommendations.
“We believe that DOE’s concerns stem from a misinterpretation of our recommendation” in a September report, the GAO said. The congressional auditing agency said it is not looking for DOE to encroach on the legal turf of other organizations, but rather to “help agencies address shared research priorities.”
From fiscal 2012 through fiscal 2016, seven federal agencies—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, DOE, EPA, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the NRC—committed roughly $210 million for research on the health effects of low-dose radiation, but annual funding has decreased, the GAO said.
There has been some coordination, but the Government Accountability Office would like to see more. DOE’s leadership role and its funding for low-dose research have decreased since 2012, GAO said. The report was done for the House Science, Space, and Technology energy subcommittee.