Radiation Protection Glossary

A radiation protection glossary for Radiation Protection Supervisors (RPS), Radiation Protection Advisers (RPA) and anyone else interesting in radiation safety terms and definitions. The glossary is a mixture of health physics , phrases related to radiation protection legislation, transport, practical safety, technical terms and similar.

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Collective Dose

Published: Oct 12, 2018

More accurately known as Collective Effective dose. This quantity is derived from summing the individual effective doses within an exposed population (or workforce). One type of unit to express this quantity is the man Sv. This quantity has been used to assess overall detriment and therefore as an aid to decision making techniques in optimising radiation protection (e.g. Risk Assessment). It is less well used nowadays where dose constraints are preferred instead .

The definition of 'safe' is not strictly an engineering term; it's a societal term. Does it mean absolutely no loss of life? Does it mean absolutely no contamination with radiation? What exactly does 'safe' mean?

– Henry Petroski -