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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Distance

Published: Oct 12, 2018

Distance, in the context of Radiation Protection, relates to one of the three key principles of protection against External Radiation hazards (i.e. Time, Distance & Shielding). In simple terms, increasing the distance between a static source of Ionising Radiation and the absorbing medium (e.g. a person) will reduce the exposure to that person. For certain defined geometries, (e.g. Point Source), the Inverse Square law can be applied which can be stated as: 'double the distance, quarter the dose'.

The ultimate paradox, of course, is that even though we're all going to die, we've all got to live in the meantime…

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