The main driving force of 3D nearshore currents is radiation stresses, and three types of vertical profile of the radiation stresses have been proposed. This paper shows a vertical profile of each radiation stress with an improved type proposed in this study, and a capacity of nearshore current prediction under a condition of a regular and an irregular wave, respectively. At the end of this study, radiation stresses of wave dissipation type became the most appropriate driving force for 3D nearshore current model. Copyright ASCE 2006.