Basic principles of radiation protection

The principles of radiation protection and safety are presented in

the International Basic Safety for Protection against Ionizing Radiation
or in appropriate National Regulations (Standards).

Summary of the principles is as follows:

- practice that entails or that could entail exposure to

radiation should only be adopted if it yields sufficient benefit
to the exposed individuals or to society to outweigh the
radiation detriment it causes or could cause (i.e. the practice
mint be justified);

- individual doses due to the combination of exposures

from all relevant practices should not exceed specified dose
limits;

- radiation sources and installations should be provided

with the best available protection and safety measures under
the prevailing circumstances, so that the magnitudes and
likelihood of exposures and the numbers of individuals
exposed be as low as reasonably achievable, economic and
social factors being taken into account, and the doses they
deliver and the risk they entail be constrained (i.e. protection
and safety should be optimized);

- radiation exposure due to sources of radiation that are

not part of a practice should be reduced by intervention when
this is justified, and the intervention measures should be
optimized; the legal person authorized to engage in a practice
involving a source of radiation should bear the primary
responsibility for protection and safety;

- safety culture should be inculcated that governs the

attitudes and behavior in relation to protection and safety of
all individuals and organizations dealing with sources of
radiation; in-depth defensive measures should be
incorporated into the design and operating procedures for
radiation sources to compensate for potential failures in
protection or safety measures; and

- protection and safety should be ensured by sound

management and good engineering, quality assurance,
training and qualification of personnel, comprehensive safety
 assessments and attention to lessons learned from
experience and research.

Radioactivity is a phenomenon of radioactive decay of the nucleus.

Radioactive decay is the ability of some nucleus to be spontaneously transformed into another
nucleus or into the same nucleus with less energy. The extra energy is released by emitting
particles (alpha, beta, gamma, neutron or others).
Atom structure
All materials are composed of atoms. An atom consists of a positive charged nucleus and
negatively charged electrons, enclosing it. The atom has no electronic charge.
In 1911 Ernest Rutherford showed that mass of the atoms was mainly concentrated (99.9%) in
the nucleus.
The size of an atom approximately equals to 10-10 m . The size of the nucleus is in order of 10-15
÷ 10- 14 m.

The charge of one electron equals to 1.6x10-19 Coulomb (C) or in relative units to –1. The charge
of the nucleus Z is positive and equal in relative units to serial number of current chemical
element in Periodic table of elements.
 Ionizing radiation is produced by radioactive decay, nuclear reactions,
like nuclear fission or nuclear fusion, and by particle accelerators that may produce,
e.g., fast electrons produced bremsstrahlung or synchrotron radiation.
The energy of radioactive decay is emitted as radiation in three main forms:

alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays

.
In order for radiation to be ionizing, the particles must both have a high enough energy and interact with the atom.
Charged particles such as beta particles (electrons or positrons), and alpha particles interact strongly with atomic
electrons.
Neutrons, on the other hand, do not interact strongly with electrons, and so they cannot directly ionize atoms.
They can interact with atomic nuclei, depending on the nucleus and their velocity,
these reactions happen with fast neutrons and slow neutrons,
depending on the situation. Neutron radiation often produces radioactive nuclei, which produce ionizing
radiation when they decay.
Gamma quanta do not ionize all along their path like alpha or beta particles . They interact with atomic
electrons by one of three effects: photoelectric effect, Compton effect, or pair production.
In every scattering event, the gamma quantum transfers energy to an electron, and it continues on its path in a different direction w
matter, chemical changes occur at the atomic level.
If the exposure is large enough these changes can be readily observed. For example, if glass is heavily
irradiated it changes colour. The amount of radiation absorbed per gram of matter is called the absorbed dose.
An ionization event normally produces a positive atomic ion and an electron. The negatively charged

electrons and positively charged ions created by ionizing radiation may cause damage in living tissue .
Much of the material on this page is the result of a Year 10 group work lesson, mainly using the
"Physics for You" textbook.
Each group presented their material to the class.

Smoke Detectors
Smoke alarms contain a weak source made of Americium-
241.
Alpha particles are emitted from here, which ionise the air,
so that the air conducts electricity and a small current flows.
If smoke enters the alarm, this absorbs the a particles, the
current reduces, and the alarm sounds.
Am-241 has a half-life of 460 years.

Thickness Control
In paper mills, the thickness of the paper can be controlled
by measuring how much beta radiation passes through the
paper to a Geiger counter.

The counter controls the pressure of the rollers to give the

correct thickness.
With paper, or plastic, or aluminium foil, b rays are used,
because a will not go through the paper.

We choose a source with a long half-life so that it does not

need to be replaced often.
Sterilising
Even after it has been packaged, gamma rays can be used to kill bacteria, mould and insects in food.
This process prolongs the shelf-life of the food, but sometimes changes the taste.

Gamma rays are also used to sterilise hospital equipment, especially plastic syringes that would be
damaged if heated.
 Radioactive Dating

Animals and plants have a known proportion of Carbon-

14 (a radioisotope of Carbon) in their tissues.

When they die they stop taking Carbon in, then the
amount of Carbon-14 goes down at a known rate
(Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5700 years).

The age of the ancient organic materials can be found by

measuring the amount of Carbon-14 that is left.

Radioactive Tracers
The most common tracer is called Technetium-99 and is very safe
because it only emits gamma rays and doesn't cause much ionisation.

Radioisotopes can be used for medical purposes, such as checking for a

blocked kidney.
To do this a small amount of Iodine-123 is injected into the patient, after
5 minutes 2 Geiger counters are placed over the kidneys.

Also radioisotopes are used in industry, to detect leaking pipes. To do

this, a small amount is injected into the pipe. It is then detected with a
GM counter above ground.

Checking Welds

If a gamma source is placed on one side of the welded metal, and a photographic film on the other side, weak points or
air bubbles will show up on the film, like an X-ray.
Cancer Treatment
Because Gamma rays can kill living cells, they are used to kill
cancer cells without having to resort to difficult surgery. This
is called "Radiotherapy", and works because cancer cells can't
repair themselves when damaged by gamma rays, as healthy
cells can.

It's vital to get the dose correct - too much and you'll damage
too many healthy cells, too little and you won't stop the cancer
from spreading in time.

Some cancers are easier to treat with radiotherapy than others -

it's not too difficult to aim gamma rays at a breast tumour, but
for lung cancer it's much harder to avoid damaging healthy
cells. Also, lungs are more easily damaged by gamma rays,
therefore other treatments may be used.