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JCCRER is the Joint Coordinating Committee for Radiation Effects Research. This is a bilateral Government committee representing agencies from the United States and the Russian Federation tasked with coordinating scientific research on the health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation in the Russian Federation from the production of nuclear weapons. |
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Jointly conducting radiation research with the Russian Federation provides a unique opportunity to learn more about possible risks to groups of people from long-term exposure to radiation. This could include people receiving exposure from uranium mining, operation of nuclear facilities, transport and disposal of radioactive materials, testing and dismantling nuclear weapons, radiation accidents, and grossly contaminated sites or facilities. |
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In 1948, the Soviet Union established a nuclear weapons production complex called the Mayak Production Association (Mayak) in the Southern Urals about 100 km (60 miles) northeast of the city of Chelyabinsk. Enormous amounts of radioactive materials were released into the environment after a series of accidents and poor management practices at the Mayak complex between 1948 and 1967. As a result, thousands of square kilometers have been contaminated and hundreds of thousands of people have received significant radiation exposures. Furthermore, because of limited and inadequate (by today's standards) radiation protection measures and procedures, thousands of Mayak workers were seriously overexposed to radiation. |
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Most of our knowledge of health effects and risks associated with radiation exposures is based on studies of atomic bomb survivors in Japan. The atomic bomb survivors, however, were exposed to a very short burst of external radiation, unlike the pattern of exposure normally encountered or expected in the nuclear industry and in other uses of radiation. The people in the Southern Urals, |
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on the other hand, experienced chronic exposures over a much longer period. The exposures were also from both external radiation and internally deposited radioactive compounds. Definitive studies on the Southern Urals populations, coupled with comparisons with U.S. nuclear worker data, may prove to be a key factor in future reassessments of radiation protection standards and regulations in the United States and worldwide. Thus, the preservation, restoration, and analysis of radiation exposure medical and environmental data in the Southern Urals are extremely important to the United States and to the world. The Southern Urals' database may provide an opportunity to answer the question of whether chronic low-level exposures pose a risk different from previously assumed. |
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Given these opportunities to advance our knowledge about the effects of ionizing radiation on humans and on the environment, on January 14, 1994, the Governments of the United States and the Russian Federation signed an Agreement on Cooperation in Research on Radiation Effects for the Purpose of Minimizing the Consequences of Radioactive Contamination on Health and the Environment. In diplomatic terms, a bilateral agreement is one of the highest levels of government-to-government agreements. The Agreement was renewed in 2000 and 2007, and is in the process of being renewed through January 14, 2014. |
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JCCRER projects funded by the Department of Energy are called the Russian Health Studies Program. It is administered by the Department of Energy's Office of International Health Studies in the United States and by the Federal Medical Biological Agency (FMBA) for radiation health effects research and by the Ministry for International Civil Defense Affairs, Emergencies, and the Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (EMERCOM) for radiation accidents in Russia. |
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