A number of commercial cable materials, including ethylene propylene rubber and crosslinked polyolefin insulations and chloroprene and chlorosulfonated polyethylene jackets have been radiation aged in air and nitrogen at radiation dose rates ranging from approximately 10 3 to 10 6 rad hr . Material degradation was followed using ultimate tensile properties (elongation and tensile strength), swelling measurements and infrared spectroscopy. The tensile results indicate that in air environments radiation dose rate effects are important for all four materials, with more mechanical damage occurring as the dose rate is lowered. These results are interpreted as coming from a competition between crosslinking and oxidative scission in which scission becomes more important as the dose rate is lowered. The swelling results offer direct evidence in support of this interpretation. In addition the infrared results show increased carbonyl content at lower dose rates, also indicative of increased oxidation. The conclusions of this study have important implications for the qualification of elastomeric materials for nuclear applications, since they clearly indicate that the mechanism of degradation is quite different (and the amount usually more severe) under low dose rate exposures compared to the mechanism occurring under the high dose rate exposures normally utilized for stimulating the natural aging.