Ionactive Radiation Protection Blog

Our radiation protection blog is predominately written by Mark Ramsay, Radiation Protection Adviser (RPA) for Ionactive Consulting. It contains a mixture of content including day to day descriptions of RPA work, advice and comment on current radiation protection issues, comment on regulator (HSE etc) inspections (suitably sanitised),  historic content (i.e. the Co-60 drop and run story, Alexander Litvinenko Po-210, Fukushima nuclear accident, industrial radiography accidents), radiation safety legislation updates and practical radiation protection in the workplace.  

For formal radiation safety advice. please see our Radiation Protection Adviser (RPA) service pages. 

  • Non-UK companies working with ionising radiation in the UK

    Published: Jun 25, 2023

      Tags:
    • HSE Registration
    • HSE Consent
    • Non-UK Company
    • Critical examination
    • Ionising radiation source
    • Radiation Protection Adviser
    • Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017
    • Installation
    • Commissioning
    • Company outside the UK

    Are you a non-UK based company working with ionising radiation in the UK? Are you a UK based company having x-ray equipment installed, commissioned, serviced or repaired by a company based outside the UK? If so – please read on!

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  • Radiation Protection: University is cool, but not the be all, and end all!

    Published: Apr 03, 2023

      Tags:
    • RPA
    • University
    • Degree
    • Radiation Protection
    • Practical experience

    Further education, such as university is important, but do not rush for the sake of it. Mark Ramsay from Ionactive summarises his progress so far ! There are many routes into a career in radiation protection, but in all cases practical experience is essential.

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  • Ionactive radiation protection resources - an update for 2023

    Published: Feb 26, 2023

      Tags:
    • Radiation Protection resource
    • Radiation protection glossary
    • radiation protection links
    • Radiation safety rules of thumb
    • technical radiation protection

    The Ionactive website (and Ionactive as a company) have always been a little different. Yes, there is a commercial side where we offer Radiation Protection Adviser (RPA) services and radiation safety training (such as our online Radiation Protection Supervisor course). However, since we started (2002), Ionactive has offered an extensive free radiation protection resource hub which is much more than a few selected links. This new blog entry for 2023 highlights new resource and updates to existing resources.

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  • New UK Consent process for users of Ionising Radiation (as of February 2023) (Updated January 2025)

    Published: Feb 25, 2023

      Tags:
    • Consent
    • IRR17
    • HSE
    • ONR
    • HSENI
    • New Consent process
    • RADAN
    • New consent system
    • RRA - Radiation Risk Assessment
    • SA - Safety Assessment
    • Interim consent
    • Enforcement
    • Ionising Radiation
    • Radioactive materials
    • High Activity Sealed Source
    • Industrial Radiography
    • Accelerator
    • Industrial sterilization
    • Radiopharmaceuticals
    • Radioactive waste storage and disposal
    • Radioactive waste discharge to environment

    An article outlining the likely new consent system for users of ionising radiation in the UK. Thoughts from Ionactive plus a summary of the main points from the 'IRR17 Consents Workshop: The New System' meeting, organised by SRP on the 16 February 2023 at The Studio, Birmingham. Members of SRP can obtain the full meeting documents so this blog entry brings these up and coming changes to widest audience possible. [Updated January 2025]. 
     

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  • Memories from the past – early radiation protection practice

    Published: Dec 30, 2022

      Tags:
    • Memories
    • early radiation protection
    • Radiation safety
    • radiation safety career
    • Amersham International
    • Gamma Fodder
    • Trashing Out
    • Frogging Suit

    A few memories from Mark Ramsay, Radiation Protection Adviser (RPA) at Ionactive, looking over the early years of radiation protection - a career which started in the late 80's.

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  • Ionactive - further thoughts on our Polonium 210 (Po-210) Litvinenko activity and dose assessment

    Published: Dec 28, 2022

      Tags:
    • Litvinenko
    • Polonium-210
    • Po-210
    • Dose assessment
    • Radioactivity
    • Po-210 poisoning
    • Polonium 210 poisoning

    Following the release of our 'Alexander Litvinenko - "Polonium-210 Poisoning" - revisiting an Ionactive 2006 blog article' on the 27 November 2022, this latest blog post compares what Ionactive assessed (including activity calculations) at the time in 2006, with official estimates of Po-210 intake and dose assessment (as submitted to 'The Litvinenko Inquiry' report issued January 2016). Ionactive came close enough.

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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe

– Albert Einstein -