Nuclear Accidents and Radionuclide Transport

Abstract

The ionising radiation will occur in many different forms of energy levels such as α, β, γ, and neutrons. The unit for an absorbed dose is 1 Gray equivalent to the classical 100 rad. The relative biological effects of the different types of radiation differ. For röntgen, β and γ-rays the relative biological effect is 1, for neutrons it may vary from 5–20 and for α-rays it is 20–40. The unit for the biological effective dose in man is Sievert equivalent to the classical 100 rem. One Sievert is 1 Gray x Relative Biological Effect, for a population exposed to a radiation hazard the term used is Collective Effective Dose. If 1 million people are exposed to 0.001 Sv, the collective effective dose is 0.001 x 10⁶= 1000 man-Sv.