A Look at Nuclear Science and Technology

Larry Foulke

Radiation and Realism 4.1 Absorbed and Equivalent Dose

Relevant Reading Assignments

Chapter 3 of Nuclear Engineering: Theory and Technology of Commercial Nuclear Power, Knief, 2nd edition, American Nuclear Society (1992, reprint by ANS 2008) Chapters 9 & 10 of Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, Lamarsh and Baratta, 3rd edition, Prentice-Hall (2001) DOE Handbook, Radiological Worker Training, http://www.hss.doe.gov/nuclearsafety/techstds/docs/handbook/ hdbk-1130-07.pdf, December 2007 Chapter 2 of Radiation and Modern Life Alan Waltar, Prometheus Books, 2004 The Nuclear Energy Option, Bernard Cohen, Plenum Press, 1990 available on the web at http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book/BOOK.html
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 Previous Module
Types of radiation interactions Calculation of reaction rates Fission

Overview

This module
Radiation dose and damage Calculation of radiation exposure Radiation protection
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Radiation Exposure
We have already established that radiation damage is related to the amount of energy deposited in a material. The energy deposition is proportional to
The rate at which radiation enters the material. The energy content of each radiation particle. The probability that a radiation particle will interact within the material. The length of time that the material is exposed to the radiation field.
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Radiation Exposure
The first attempt to quantify radiation effects resulted in a unit called the Roentgen (R)
1 Roentgen = the amount of radiation required to produce an electric charge density of 2.5810-4 coulombs per kilogram due to ionizations in air at standard temperature and pressure.

The Roentgen provides a good measure of the amount of radiation directed at a material, material referred to as exposure. Meaningful measurements for radiation exposure were restricted to X and -Rays, usually with energies < 3 MeV.
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Image Source: See Note 1

 The Roentgen does not provide any information on the probability of radiation interactions in materials other than air. A more meaningful measurement is the total amount of radiation energy deposited per mass of a given material, referred to as the absorbed dose. In 1956 the ICRU adopted a standard unit for radiation energy deposition in a material
1 rad = the absorption of 10-2 joules of radiation energy per kilogram of material. (100 erg/gm) rad stands for radiation absorbed dose For biological tissue 1 R exposure produces 0.95 rad
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Absorbed Dose

Biological Effect
For biological damage, concentrations of ionizations within a single cell are more damaging than the same number of ionizations spread over many cells. Therefore, biological damage is proportional to both the absorbed dose of radiation, as well as the LET for the type and energy of radiation. Typical cell size Gamma ray, low LET Alpha particle, high LET

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Biological Effectiveness
In order to have a common basis for comparing biological effects due to different types of radiation, we define a relative biological effectiveness (RBE): Reference Dose of radiation to produce a given effect RBE = Dose of specific radiation to give the same effect The RBE is highly dependent on the type and energy of radiation.

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Equivalent Dose
The upper limit of the RBE for a specific type of radiation is called the quality factor (Q) for the radiation. Multiplying absorbed dose by the quality factor for the type of radiation gives the effective or equivalent dose.

equivalent dose (rem) = Q absorbed dose (rad)

Equivalent dose in rem (Roentgen Equivalent Man) is a common unit of measurement for comparing unique exposure events.
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Equivalent Dose
From 10CFR20.1004

Because the quality factor is an upper limit, equivalent dose is considered a measure of the potential damage from radiation exposure. Simultaneous doses from multiple types of radiation are additive.
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SI Units
Dose units rad and rem are in [cJ/kg]. SI base units require [J/kg], giving us new SI standards for dose: Absorbed dose
1 Gray (Gy) = 100 rad 1 rad = 1 cGy

Equivalent dose
1 Sievert (Sv) = 100 rem 1 rem = 1 cSv
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Rolf Sievert
Image Source: See Note 2

The Banana Equivalent Dose

Bananas contain a small amount of radioactivity in the form of Potassium40 (40K) A typical banana has about a half of a gram of potassium, or an activity of about 31 Bequerels One BED is the dose one gets by eating one banana.
Nuclear Engineering Program Image Source: See Note 3

Image Source Notes

1. Public domain: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/gal leries/technologies/radiology.html 2. Public domain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rolf_Si evert_1896-1966.jpg 3. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Banane n_Frucht.jpg