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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Published: Oct 12, 2018
The external radiation (hazard) exists where an absorber (typically a person) is being exposed to a source of Ionising Radiation external to the body. Examples would include exposures to Sealed Sources, dental X-Rays and Cosmic Rays. One feature of this hazard is that moving the absorber away from the source (usually) results in a reduction in the Dose of ionising radiation to that absorber, which is not the case for Internal Radiation hazards.
The ultimate paradox, of course, is that even though we're all going to die, we've all got to live in the meantime…