Timeline for How much radiation do nuclear physics experiments expose researchers to nowadays?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 11, 2019 at 17:53 | vote | accept | OpticalQuantumEngineer | ||
| Apr 16, 2019 at 13:37 | comment | added | allo | Shouldn't the unit for the background radiation be rem/year? | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 20:51 | comment | added | Jon Custer | @wizzwizz4 - indeed. Just shows you the gulf between allowed occupational exposure and necessary medical treatments. And why going through radiation treatments is a really hard thing to do. | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 20:33 | comment | added | wizzwizz4 | @JonCuster That is, according to Randal Munroe, probably enough to kill a horse. (They didn't let him test this.) | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 18:24 | comment | added | Jon Custer | As a further data point for those wondering what 5 rem is, my wife received 3000 rem (localized) during cancer treatment. Full body exposure, that would be a quick death. And that was in a dose reduction trial - the normal dose would be 6000 rem (localized). | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 18:00 | comment | added | Jon Custer | The typical 'errors' are by mistakenly taking a TLD through airport security (our folks have tables of expected exposures at different airports), or folks having nuclear medicine tests and wearing their badges too soon afterwards. As for 'background', they apply a bit of a fudge factor to account for some variation in background and a bit of margin. Actually reading the TLDs has a lot of data analysis behind it. A consistent 20 mrem above background would be considered significant. Biggest wild card in my departments has been getting the right neutron energy spectrum. | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 16:25 | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | As another anecdote, I used to work at a DoE lab where basically any detectable amount above background was too much. At some point, it does get silly - I remember hearing stories about painstakingly remediating an area for an outdoor patio to eat lunch, despite the fact that someone could get a higher radiation dose by eating a banana on the finished patio. | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 14:58 | comment | added | user4552 | @JonCuster: Thanks for the comment. I've edited to say that specific labs have lower limits than the NRC's regulatory limit. I'm curious about your lab's rules, though. Can they even measure background well enough to know if your exposure is above background by an amount as tiny as 20 mrem? At some point with these very small doses, it gets silly, e.g., you could go over your limit by mistakenly taking your badge home to your house that has radon in it. | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 14:54 | history | edited | user4552 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 74 characters in body
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| Apr 15, 2019 at 14:35 | comment | added | Jon Custer | For me to be authorized to receive 5 rem/year would require the signature of the Secretary of Energy. My current authorization is not to exceed 100 mrem/yr. Over the 30 odd years I've worked on ion accelerators and pulsed power I think I exceeded background once (and it wasn't quite clear how - likely a TLD read error), so something like 20 mrem above background total over those 30 years. | |
| Apr 15, 2019 at 14:23 | history | edited | Emilio Pisanty | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Added NRC link to avoid confusion with other bodies.
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| Apr 15, 2019 at 14:18 | history | answered | user4552 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |