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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Effective dose

Published: Oct 12, 2018

The Effective Dose is obtained by taking the Equivalent Dose (Dose Equivalent) and multiplying by a Tissue Weighting Factor which relates to the organs / tissues under consideration. Effective Dose can therefore also be considered a doubly weighted Absorbed Dose since it takes into account the type of radiation (radiation weighting factor) and the target organ / tissue. The quantity can be used to express Detriment to the whole body as a summation of several different doses of radiation with varying radiation weighting factors (radiation type) and targets.

Physics is really nothing more than a search for ultimate simplicity, but so far all we have is a kind of elegant messiness

– Bill Bryson -