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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Dose Equivalent

Published: Oct 12, 2018

Dose Equivalent (some refer to this as Equivalent Dose) is a quantity which takes into account 'radiation quality' which relates to the degree in which a type of Ionising Radiation will produce biological damage. The Dose Equivalent is obtained by multiplying the Absorbed Dose by a Quality Factor. The resulting quantity can then be expressed numerically in Rem (old units) or more commonly Sieverts (Sv). It is worth emphasising that the quantity is independent of the absorbing material (i.e. tissue, water, air).

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