The Office of Domestic and International Health Studies Strategic Research Program facilitates important research to address key aspects of radiation health effects with a vision toward improved risk characterization and practical mitigation strategies.
Russian Health Studies Program
The Department of Energy's (DOE) Russian Health Studies Program (RHSP) aimed to assess worker and public health risk from exposure to ionizing radiation among workers and populations living near Russian former nuclear weapons production sites. The research mainly focused on workers at the Mayak Production Association, which was Russia's first nuclear weapons production facility, and on the residents of the communities surrounding this facility.
The objective was to answer critical questions on the health impacts associated with chronic, low dose and low dose rate radiation exposures. About 400 papers were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and the research findings have been frequently used by national (e.g., the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements) and international (e.g., the International Commission on Radiation Protection) radiation protection organizations.
The RHSP began on January 14, 1994, in accordance with a bilateral agreement between the United States and the Russian Federation to collaboratively study the human health effects following exposure to ionizing radiation. Studies were performed jointly by U.S. and Russian scientists, managed by DOE, and with independent scientific oversight under the aegis of the U.S.-Russian Federation Joint Coordinating Committee for Radiation Effects Research.
The DOE funding to support Russian scientists was discontinued on March 14, 2022, due to the Ukraine war. Efforts have been made since to orderly close-out the RHSP. In particular, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recently organized a workshop on 30 Years of Scientific Achievements for International Radiological Protection: Summary of the Southern Urals Health Studies Program, 24-25 May 2024.