Nuclear Dose Uptake Analysis & ALARP Services

When working with ionising radiation, it is important to understand the impact of radiological dose to facility workers and the public so that exposure can be controlled and minimised to ensure that legal limits are not exceeded.

What ARE Dose Uptake Calculations?

Dose uptake calculations produce estimates of the dose accrued by persons due to both external and internal sources of ionising radiation.

At the highest level, these calculations determine whether dose accrued by workers and members of the public are within the legal limits outlined in the applicable regulatory framework. However, they are also used to demonstrate compliance with company or facility dose limits and they provide an opportunity to ensure that radiation protection measures implemented into facility design and operations are applied in an optimal manner.

By studying how total dose accrued is distributed across, for example, location, task, worker group or for other such identifiers, any additional radiation protection measures can be implemented where they will be most effective. Whilst this approach demonstrates consideration of the ALARP / ALARA principle at the design stage, it also brings cost saving benefits by ensuring time and money spent implementing radiation protection measures is applied where it will be of most benefit and not where it would provide negligible benefit.

Why ARE Dose Uptake Calculations Important?

When working with ionising radiation, compliance with regulatory limits is a legal requirement. Also, to properly understand dose uptake allows the identification of opportunities to reduce dose and thus reduce the risks of health implications, as well as ensuring that resources dedicated to reducing doses are deployed where they will be most effective.

TÜV SÜD's Services

TÜV SÜD Nuclear Technologies Division offer a complete range of Dose Uptake Calculation services:

• External Dose Rate Calculations – radiation transport calculation to determine the dose rate incident onto persons.
• Internal Dose Rate Calculations – consideration of the many pathways that radioisotopes can enter the human body and the resulting isotope-dependent dose coefficients.
• Dose Uptake Calculations – considering the transience of sources, transience of persons and taking into account complex interactions such as shift patterns, multiple sources etc.
• Compliance with Regulatory Requirements and ALARP / ALARA – offering expert advice on legal compliance and practical solutions to ALARP / ALARA.