L Atwell, Executive Secretary
Telephone: (301) 657-2652
http://icru.org

ICRU RELEASES REPORT NO. 94,
Methods for Initial-Phase Assessment of Individual Doses
Following Acute Exposure to Ionizing Radiation

International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) Report 94,
Methods for Initial-Phase Assessment of Individual Doses Following Acute Exposure toIonizing Radiation, presents the most recent applicable dosimetry methods to be
applied to individuals in early-phase response to radiological accidents.
Retrospective assessment of individual doses following acute exposures to ionizingradiation consists of a number of approaches including use of physical dosimetry inmaterials belonging to individuals, and in biological samples as well as biodosimetry
techniques.
ICRU Report 94, an ICRU- European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) joint
report, is the result of a need identified by ICRU and EURADOS to review the latest
research on dosimetry methods to be applied to members of the public following acuteexposure to radiation due to a radiological incident. Such incidents might include
exposure of a large number of people during, for example, the accidental release ofradiation over a broad area (e.g., a nuclear power plant accident) or from the intentional
release of radiation by a terrorist group (e.g., using an improvised nuclear device). Or
the incident may be a small-scale accident involving a small number of people (such asa confined industrial or medical accident).
The Report describes the various dosimetry tools for dose assessment that arecurrently available or under development and provides recommendations for their use.
The Report is intended to help direct future scientific and technological research anddevelopment, field exercises, and laboratory inter-comparisons, as well as theestablishment of regional networks of dosimetry laboratories.
ICRU Report 68, Retrospective Assessment of Exposures to Ionizing Radiation, did notinclude methods that are applied after receiving high exposures that cause acuteradiation syndromes. Furthermore, since the publication of ICRU Report 68 in 2002,
new research has been published in the field of retrospective dosimetry leading tomaturing of the various methods and, most significantly, to the formation of newapplications for retrospective assessment of individual doses. Therefore, ICRU Report
94 also provides an update and expansion of ICRU Report 68.
Target audiences are primarily scientists and technology developers and, secondly,policy and decision makers. The Report describes in detail the status of research into
major dose assessment methods and strategic approaches that may be employed forradiological emergency response and management. The emphasis of this Report is on
dosimetry a “short-time” (i.e., a few hours to a few weeks) after acute radiation
exposure. As a result, the focus is on dosimetry that may assist in the medical treatmentof tissue reactions (deterministic health effects).
ICRU Report 94 is available at https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/cru/current in both PDF
and hardcopy formats. For customer service queries email: orders@sagepub.com orcall: 1-800-818-7243 / 1-805-499-9774.