While most books have written about radiation safety concerning technical aspects, whether it be radiation biology, instrumentation, or radiation shielding, this book addresses the pragmatic question: What elements must be put in place to have a successful radiation safety program? The author intends that the book to be used as a practical guide for a radiation safety program for a wide variety of professionals. While the book provides very useful material, including many references from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), it is hurt by the author's attempt to cover too broad range of applications and the topics pertinent to those applications. The book is mostly suited for a physicist or engineer who has never setup a radiation safety program. In that context, the book could provide an outline of what items that must become part of the program. The book begins with a brief overview of the importance of physics in radiation safety. It then goes into the framework in which radiation is regulated, followed by chapters describing the specific elements needed for a radiation safety program. The highlight of the book is the chapter on “General Principles of Radiation Protection.” It includes very good discussions about the ICRP recommendations for employing justification and optimization to evaluate the uses of ionizing radiation. The discussion also provides a very useful set of tools that one can use in doing this assessment. Yet, the guidance provided on many other topics is not particularly helpful. For example, the discussion on individual monitoring of the worker doses gives no information beyond what is already found in the regulations. While the book notes that the worker dose at times must be assessed from the monitoring of ambient radiation levels, it conflates the assessment of dose for workers requiring monitoring with an evaluation to demonstrate no need to monitor: two different evaluations. In the discussion about control of radiation dose to the public, one finds information on the dispersion of radioactive material from satellites reentering the atmosphere and a short discussion on dose from the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accidents. However, there is nothing about much more common means of limiting this dose such as control of radioactive effluents or shielding of accelerators. Similar examples of discussions that either omit important considerations or provide misleading guidance appear throughout the book. The book attempts to work within the framework of laws and regulations governed by the United States. However, the author, who has many years of experience as a government regulator for another country, appears to not be fully familiar with these requirements. The following three examples serve to illustrate this weakness. At one point the book states that the occupational dose limit for certain minors is 6 mSv, which is higher than the regulatory limit in the United States. In the discussion about the classification of an area, it muddles the distinction in NRC regulations between restricted areas and controlled areas and imposes many unnecessary requirements no matter which type of area one is discussing. The discussion of licensing in the United States does not show an understanding of the process. Still, the book provides good information on the general structure of a radiation safety program. At the end of Chapter 17, there is a 10-page Radiation Protection Program Development Checklist that one could use in developing a checklist specific to their own facility. The strength of this book is that it conveys the breadth of issues that must be addresses by a radiation safety program. Since the author tried to cover all these issues, very few practical guidelines are given. While a person with a good background in physics could use this book as a general guide to a radiation safety program, it is questionable whether that person would need the book or whether it would be better to go directly to the guidance already available from IAEA, ICRP, and the national regulatory agencies. Keith Brown is an Associate Director, Radiation Safety at University of Pennsylvania (Penn). He oversees the radiation protection and safety program at Penn and he is involved in many training and teaching programs of the university.
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Dec 8, 2023
Tetiana Bogachenko + 1
Open Access