RE-2015

Quantities and Units

Dr. Muhammad Mansha

Chaudhry

Lecture 1
RE- Quantities and Units 1
 Lecture 1

Radiation Protection
QUANTITIES AND UNITS

Lecture 1
RE- Quantities and Units 2
Quantity
 A physical entity used for precise description of a
phenomenon and defined so as to be measured
Unit
 A particular sample of a quantity of such magnitude
that is assigned the measure “1”
Common unit
 It is a product or quotient of the fundamental units
Special unit
 A unit having a special name and is associated with
a particular quantity
Quantity and unit
 The quantity specifies the type of phenomenon
under consideration

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Radiation
 Radiation is a transport of energy through space
 In traversing material, radiation is absorbed
Directly Ionizing Particles
 Charged particles (e’s, p’s, ’s, etc.) having
sufficient kinetic energy to produce ionization by
collision
Indirectly ionizing particles
 Uncharged particles (n’s, ’s, etc.)
Ionizing radiation
 Any radiation consisting of directly or indirectly
ionizing particles or a mixture of both

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Nuclide
 A species of atom having specified number of
neutrons and protons in its nucleus denoted as
A
Z X 235
U
92

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Radioactivity

 Denote phenomenon of radioactive disintegration

 It is not synonym for activity

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Activity (A)

 The activity of a quantity of a radionuclide is

N
A
t
 where N is the number of nuclear disintegrations (or
transformations) which occur in this quantity in time t
Units
 SI unit: becquerel (Bq)
1 Bq = 1 dis/sec
 Special unit: curie (Ci)
1 Ci = 3.7x1010 Bq

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Mutual relations of quantities

Units
 SI unit: becquerel (Bq)
1 Bq = 1 dis/sec
 Special unit: curie (Ci)
1 Ci = 3.7x1010 Bq

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Radiation Field

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Particle fluence or fluence (Φ)

 For particle, particle fluence or fluence is

 where N is the number of particles which enter a

sphere of cross sectional area a

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Particle fluence rate or flux density
()
 For particles, the particle flux density or flux density
is

 where  is the particle fluence in time t

Ref. Jaeger, Engineering Compendium on Radiation
Shielding, p.364

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Definition of Point Source
 A radiation source material confined to a volume
whose dimensions are small compared with the distance
between the source and the place at which the radiation
field is to be measured.

The radiation of a point source is presumed to be emitted

isotropically over the full 4π solid angle in steradians. The
symbol for the source strength is S0, and the units are [s-1].

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Point Source

For suitable geometry, the point source

approximation is often employed for isotropic
emission from a source, which emits S0
particles per unit time (usually denoted
simply as S).
The expression below, which assumes no
attenuation (e.g., in a vacuum), nonetheless
is useful in describing a source in air:

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Flux from a Point Source
(Photon and Neutron Sources)

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Exposure (X)

Q
 The exposure is defined as X
m

 where Q is the sum of the electrical charges on all

the ions of one sign produced in air when all the
electrons (negatrons and positrons), liberated by
photons in a volume element of air whose mass is
m, are completely stopped in air
Exposure rate
 X
X 
t

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Units of exposure

SI unit: Exposure unit (X-unit)

1 X-unit = 1 C/kg air
Old unit: Roentgen (R)
1 R = 1 esu / cm3 of dry air
1 R = 2.58x10-4 C/kg

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Roentgen
(from Turner, p. 362)

 Exposure is defined for gamma and X rays in terms of the amount of

ionization they produce in air. The unit of exposure is called the roentgen
(R) and was introduced at the Radiological Congress in Stockholm in
1928.
 It was originally defined as that amount of gamma or X radiation that
produces in air 1 esu of charge of either sign per 0.001293 g of air. (This
mass of air occupies 1 cm3 at standard temperature and pressure.) The
charge involved in the definition of the roentgen includes both the ions
produced directly by the incident photons as well as ions produced by all
secondary electrons.
 The concept of exposure applies only to electromagnetic radiation; the
charge and mass used in its definition, as well as in the definition of the
roentgen, refer only
to air.

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Example

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Kerma (K) (Kinetic Energy Released
in Matter)
E K
 It is defined as K
m

 where EK is the sum of the initial kinetic energies

of all the charged particles liberated by indirectly
ionizing particles in a volume element of the
specified material, m is the mass of the matter in
that volume element
Kerma Rate
 K
K
t

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 Energy imparted
 The energy imparted by ionizing radiation to the
matter in a vacuum is the difference between the
sum of the energies of all the directly and indirectly
ionizing particles which have entered the volume
and the sum of the energies of all those which
have left it, minus the energy equivalent of any
increase in rest mass that took place in nuclear or
elementary particle reactions within the volume

where Q is the sum of the Q-values of whatever (if any)

nuclear reactions that take place within volume, V

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Absorbed dose (D)

E D
 The absorbed dose is defined as D
m

 where ED is the energy imparted by ionizing

radiation to the matter in a volume element, m is
the mass of the matter in that volume element

Absorbed dose rate

 D
D
t

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Units of Absorbed dose

SI unit: gray (Gy)

1 Gy = 1 joule/ kg

Old unit: rad (radiation absorbed dose)

1 rad = 100 ergs/g
1 rad = 0.01 Gy

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Linear energy transfer (LET)

 For charged particles, the linear energy transfer is

dEL
L
dl
 where dEL is the average energy locally imparted to
the medium by a charged particle of specified
energy in traversing a distance dl

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Dose equivalent (note it is not Equivalent
dose)

RBE (Relative biological effectiveness)

 Absorbed dose from different types of radiations have
different biological effectiveness
 The RBE of one type of radiation in relation to a
reference type of a radiation is the inverse ratio of the
absorbed doses of two radiations needed to cause the
same degree of the biological effect for which the RBE
is given
Quality factor (Q)
 The whole number rounded value of RBE

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Fundamental of Radiation
Protection Quantities and
Units 33
Dose equivalent
conti.

Quality factors for various types of radiations

Types of radiation Q
x and  rays 1
b rays 1
a particles 10
Heavy recoil nuclei 20
Neutrons
Thermal to many MeV 2–10
Lecture 1
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Dose equivalent
conti.

Dose equivalent (H)

H=QxD
Unit
rem (Roentgen equivalent man)

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Equivalent dose (HT)

 Equal amounts of energy of different radiations can cause

different amounts of damage (biological effect)
 Equivalent dose introduced to quantify the portable bio-
effect
 Equivalent dose in a tissue T is given by:

where w signifies the relative biological effectiveness of a

given type of radiation, R; DR,T is the physical deposited
dose by a given radiation, R, in tissue type T

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Equivalent dose (HT)
…..Conti

 The so-called radiation weighting factor assumes different

values of different radiations, as follows:
 WR = 1 for X,  and  radiation (i.e. low LET radiation)
 WR > 1 for high LET radiation, the associated dose
deposition density having the capacity to cause greater
biological effects than low LET radiations
Units
SI unit: sievert (Sv)

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Radiation weighting factors (wR)
Radiation wR
Photons, all energies 1
Beta, all energies 1
Alpha, fission fragments and heavy nuclei 20
Neutrons < 10 keV 5
Neutrons 10 – 100 keV 10
Neutrons 100 keV – 2 MeV 20
Neutrons 2 – 20 MeV 10
Neutrons > 20 MeV 5
Protons > 2 MeV 5

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Effective dose

 A measure of biological harm in a given tissue type,

since different tissues and organs have different
sensitivity to radiation
 Effective dose

E w H
T
T T

where wT is the tissue weighting factor, HT equivalent

dose
 Substituting HT of previous equation

Units
SI unit: sievert (Sv)

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Tissue weighting factor (wT)

Organ or tissue wT
Whole body 1
Gonads 0.2
Red bone marrow, Colon, Lung, Stomach 0.12
Bladder, Breast, Liver, Oesophagus, Thyroid gland 0.05
Skin, Bone surface 0.01
Remainder: All organs and tissues not listed above 0.05
collectively, including the adrenal gland, brain,
extra-thoracic airway, small intestine, kidney,
muscles, pancreas, spleen, thymus and uterus

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From Martin-Harbison

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Population dose

Definition
 Product of effective dose (in Sv) per member of
population and population size
E pop   N i Ei
i

where E is effective dose and N is the population size

Units
 Unit is man-Sv

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 (From IAEA Safety Glossary)

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Internal Exposure, ICRP–60 Criterion

Annual Limit on Intake (ALI)

 The annual intake (inhalation or ingestion) that
would lead to a committed effective dose not
exceeding 20 mSv per year. ALI is the quantity
such that:
 Σ WT. HT ≤ 20 m Sv
 It is that amount of activity of a radionuclide which
would result in the maximum recommended dose
if inhaled or ingested by “reference person”. As in
the case of external exposure, the intake may be
averaged over 5 years.

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Derived air concentration (DAC)
 That average atmospheric concentration of radionuclide
which would lead to the ALI in a reference person as a
consequence of exposure at the DAC for a 2000 hours
working year.
[50w/y x 5d/w x 8h/d = 2000 h/y]
Reference man air inhalation rate = 20 litres/minute
= 2400 m3/ 2000 h
ALI
DAC=
air intake per year
ALI  Bq/y   Bq 
DAC 
2400  m 3 /y   m 3 

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Radon concentration

 The potential  energy concentration of radon/

decay products in air is expressed in
 J/m3 (SI unit)
 working level WL (older unit)
1 WL = 2.08x10-3 J/m3
WL
 It is defined as any combination of the short lived
daughters of 222Rn in 1 liter of air that will ultimately
emit a total of 1.3x105 MeV in  energy
 For radon in equilibrium with its decay products
1 WL = 3700 Bq/m3 = 100 Bq/L

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Radon concentration
contin.
Exposure to radon decay products
 The amount of inhaled decay products of radon,
taking into account their potential to emit radiation
energy, is the product of time during which the
decay products were inhaled and their
concentration in the inhaled air.
 Exposure is expressed in
 Bq h/ m3 in SI units
 Working level month (WLM) in older units
 Working month for miners = 170 h

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WL (Martin, Physics for Radiation Protection p.
296) (Note that some regulatory agencies use 1 month= 173 hours)

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Mutual relations of quantities

Conversions
1 X-unit = 3877 R
1 Gy = 100 Gy
1 Sv = 100 rem
Exposure-Dose relationship
1 X-unit = 34 Gy (in air)
1 X-unit = 37 Gy (in tissue)
1 R = 0.877 rad (in air)
1 R = 0.95 rad (in tissue)

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 Source of exposure Dose
Dental x-ray 0.005 mSv
100g of Brazil nuts 0.01 mSv
Chest x-ray 0.014 mSv
Transatlantic flight 0.08 mSv
UK annual average radon dose 1.3 mSv
CT scan of the head 1.4 mSv
UK average annual radiation dose 2.7 mSv
CT scan of the chest 6.6 mSv
CT scan of the whole spine 10 mSv
Annual exposure limit for nuclear industry employees 20 mSv
Level at which changes in blood cells can be readily observed 100 mSv
Acute radiation effects including nausea and a reduction in white
1 Sv (1 Gy )
blood cell count
Dose lethal for 50% of exposed persons within 60 days (infection death) 3-5 Sv (3-5 Gy)
Gastrointestinal Death ( survival time 3-5 days) 10 – 50 Gy
Central Nervous System Death >50 Gy

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Fundamental of Radiation
Protection Quantities and 56
Units
 What is “Dose” ?

Fundamental of Radiation
Protection Quantities and 57
Units