The monetary value of the averted dose for public exposure assessed by the willingness to pay.

The monetary value of the unit averted collective dose at an individual reference dose (as alpha(base)-value) and the aversion against the high individual exposure were assessed by the WTP (Willingness To Pay) method. The original questionnaire and methodology were developed by the CEPN, France, for specialists in the nuclear field. Modifications to the questionnaire were introduced in 2000 to take into account the Hungarian aspects. In 2001, the questionnaire was further modified for use with the public in Hungary. The present paper refers to the results from the most recent studies on public exposure. The questionnaire was provided to 118 persons living in four different regions of Hungary, one near the U-mining site, one near a nuclear power plant, and two others far away from nuclear affected sites. Conversion of the questionnaire to be understandable by the public involved intensive modifications both in form and content. Only 83 to 86 respondents provided usable answers to questions related to the monetary value of the averted dose and the aversion coefficient. The alpha(base)-value was determined from the statistical value of life assessed by the willingness to pay of the respondents for the risk of fatal cancer averted. The mathematical form used to assess the aversion coefficient was a power function with respect to the individual dose, as already introduced in our earlier papers. The advantage of the power function is that the aversion coefficient is independent of the individual reference dose. According to the current results, the mean value of the lognormally distributed alpha-value at the individual reference dose (alpha(base)) takes 10,000 US dollars (person Sv)(-1) with large confidence bounds. The alpha(base)-value is about 50% higher than the alpha(base)-value estimated among the radiation specialists in Hungary, but 5-10 times less than the values obtained in highly developed countries like in France. The normally distributed aversion coefficient for the public assessed to 2.51 +/- 0.56 and is 30% higher than the value obtained by the Hungarian specialists in the nuclear field. Due to the high sensitivity of the alpha-value to the variation of individual reference dose (d0) the derivation of a generic d0-value will depend upon the circumstances of optimization.