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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For formal advice, see our Radiation Protection Adviser pages. 

Sealed Source

With respect to Radiation Protection, a sealed source is a source of Ionising Radiation in the form of Radioactive material which is encapsulated. Sealed radioactive material can not escape and will not cause a Contamination hazard. Sealed sources are used in irradiators (food, products, blood), and thickness & level gauges. The activity of the sealed source can vary from a few Bq to many 10's of TBq. See Closed Source for additional definitions and Unsealed Source for the alternative type of source. Also see HASS sources.

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