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.

Search the Glossary by either clicking on a letter or typing a keyword into the search box. This glossary is relational so when looking at one term you can click through to other related terms as required.

For formal advice, see our Radiation Protection Adviser pages. 

Decay Product

A radionuclide produced as a result of a parent radionuclide's decay. The decay products may be derived from their immediate predecessor, of through several other decays in a decay chain series. One example would be Radon Decay products where Ra-222 will decay to products including Polonium 218 (via alpha decay) and then Lead-214 (also alpha decay).

Atoms are very special: they like certain particular partners, certain particular directions, and so on. It is the job of physics to analyze why each one wants what it wants.

– Richard P. Feynman -