Safety Reports Series No.37 Methods for Assessing Occupational Radiation Doses Due to Intakes of Radionuclides IAEA SAFETY RELATED PUBLICATIONS IAEA SAFETY STANDARDS Under the terms of Article III of its Statute, the IAEA is authorized to establish standards of safety for protection against ionizing radiation and to provide for the application of these standards to peaceful nuclear activities. The regulatory related publications by means of which the IAEA establishes safety standards and measures are issued in the IAEA Safety Standards Series. This series covers nuclear safety, radiation safety, transport safety and waste safety, and also general safety (that is, of relevance in two or more of the four areas), and the categories within it are Safety Fundamentals, Safety Requirements and Safety Guides. Safety Fundamentals (blue lettering) present basic objectives, concepts and principles of safety and protection in the development and application of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Safety Requirements (red lettering) establish the requirements that must be met to ensure safety. These requirements, which are expressed as ‘shall’ statements, are governed by the objectives and principles presented in the Safety Fundamentals. Safety Guides (green lettering) recommend actions, conditions or procedures for meeting safety requirements. Recommendations in Safety Guides are expressed as ‘should’ state- ments, with the implication that it is necessary to take the measures recommended or equivalent alternative measures to comply with the requirements. The IAEA’s safety standards are not legally binding on Member States but may be adopted by them, at their own discretion, for use in national regulations in respect of their own activities. The standards are binding on the IAEA in relation to its own operations and on States in relation to operations assisted by the IAEA. Information on the IAEA’s safety standards programme (including editions in languages other than English) is available at the IAEA Internet site www-ns.iaea.org/standards/ or on request to the Safety Co-ordination Section, IAEA, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria. OTHER SAFETY RELATED PUBLICATIONS Under the terms of Articles III and VIII.C of its Statute, the IAEA makes available and fosters the exchange of information relating to peaceful nuclear activities and serves as an intermediary among its Member States for this purpose. Reports on safety and protection in nuclear activities are issued in other series, in particular the IAEA Safety Reports Series, as informational publications. Safety Reports may describe good practices and give practical examples and detailed methods that can be used to meet safety requirements. 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METHODS FOR ASSESSING OCCUPATIONAL RADIATION DOSES DUE TO INTAKES OF RADIONUCLIDES The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GUATEMALA PERU ALBANIA HAITI PHILIPPINES ALGERIA HOLY SEE POLAND ANGOLA HONDURAS PORTUGAL ARGENTINA HUNGARY QATAR ARMENIA ICELAND REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA AUSTRALIA INDIA ROMANIA AUSTRIA INDONESIA AZERBAIJAN IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION BANGLADESH IRAQ SAUDI ARABIA BELARUS IRELAND SENEGAL BELGIUM ISRAEL SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO BENIN ITALY SEYCHELLES BOLIVIA JAMAICA SIERRA LEONE BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JAPAN SINGAPORE BOTSWANA JORDAN SLOVAKIA BRAZIL KAZAKHSTAN SLOVENIA BULGARIA KENYA SOUTH AFRICA BURKINA FASO KOREA, REPUBLIC OF SPAIN CAMEROON KUWAIT CANADA KYRGYZSTAN SRI LANKA CENTRAL AFRICAN LATVIA SUDAN REPUBLIC LEBANON SWEDEN CHILE LIBERIA SWITZERLAND CHINA LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC COLOMBIA LIECHTENSTEIN TAJIKISTAN COSTA RICA LITHUANIA THAILAND CÔTE D’IVOIRE LUXEMBOURG THE FORMER YUGOSLAV CROATIA MADAGASCAR REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA CUBA MALAYSIA TUNISIA CYPRUS MALI TURKEY CZECH REPUBLIC MALTA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MARSHALL ISLANDS UGANDA OF THE CONGO MAURITIUS UKRAINE DENMARK MEXICO UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MONACO UNITED KINGDOM OF ECUADOR MONGOLIA GREAT BRITAIN AND EGYPT MOROCCO NORTHERN IRELAND EL SALVADOR MYANMAR UNITED REPUBLIC ERITREA NAMIBIA OF TANZANIA ESTONIA NETHERLANDS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ETHIOPIA NEW ZEALAND URUGUAY FINLAND NICARAGUA UZBEKISTAN FRANCE NIGER GABON NIGERIA VENEZUELA GEORGIA NORWAY VIETNAM GERMANY PAKISTAN YEMEN GHANA PANAMA ZAMBIA GREECE PARAGUAY ZIMBABWE The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. © IAEA, 2004 Permission to reproduce or translate the information contained in this publication may be obtained by writing to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Wagramer Strasse 5, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria. Printed by the IAEA in Austria July 2004 STI/PUB/1190 SAFETY REPORTS SERIES No. 37 METHODS FOR ASSESSING OCCUPATIONAL RADIATION DOSES DUE TO INTAKES OF RADIONUCLIDES INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2004 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Methods for assessing occupational radiation doses due to intakes of radionuclides. — Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2004. p. ; 24 cm. — (Safety reports series, ISSN 1020–6450 ; no. 37) STI/PUB/1190 ISBN 92–0–103904–2 Includes bibliographical references. 1. Ionizing radiation — Measurement. 2. Radiation dosimetry. 3. Radiation workers. 4. Industrial safety. 5. Radiation — Safety measures. 6. Radioisotopes. I. International Atomic Energy Agency. II. Series. IAEAL 04–00361 FOREWORD Radioactive material is used in many human activities and, whenever unsealed radioactive sources are present, intakes of radionuclides by workers can occur. These activities include the use of radioactive sources in medicine, scientific research, agriculture and industry, the operation of various facilities that are part of the nuclear fuel cycle, and work involving exposure to enhanced levels of naturally occurring radionuclides. Intakes can occur by a number of routes, and the monitoring of workers and the workplace in such situations is an integral part of any occupational radiation protection programme. Guidance on monitoring programmes and methods for assessments of intakes of radioactive material arising from occupational exposure is given in a Safety Guide, Assessment of Occupational Exposure Due to Intakes of Radionuclides (Safety Standards Series No. RS-G-1.2), published in 1999. This guidance is in turn supplemented by a Safety Practice on Direct Methods for Measuring Radionuclides in the Human Body (Safety Series No. 114), published in 1996, and a Safety Report on Indirect Methods for Assessing Intakes of Radionuclides Causing Occupational Exposure (Safety Reports Series No. 18), published in 2000, that give practical advice on the methods for individual monitoring of intakes of radionuclides by workers. This report contains practical advice on the interpretation of monitoring results and the assessment of committed effective doses to workers, using the standard models of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, adopted as a reference in the International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (Safety Series No. 115), published in 1996. With its publication the IAEA now provides a complete set of reference publications for use in Member States that have facilities in which workers have the potential to incur intakes of radionuclides. These publications are founded on internationally accepted principles and recommended practices, taking account of the major changes in protection standards and monitoring methods that have occurred over the past decade. This report was drafted over the course of five Consultants Meetings held between 1997 and 2001 and finalized through a consultancy in 2003. The IAEA is grateful to the experts who took part in the development and review of this publication. The contributions of J. Lipsztein, D. Noßke, A. Phipps, J.W. Stather, R.E. Toohey and D. Whillans are especially acknowledged. The IAEA officer responsible for the preparation of this report was M. Gustafsson of the Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety. EDITORIAL NOTE Although great care has been taken to maintain the accuracy of information contained in this publication, neither the IAEA nor its Member States assume any responsibility for consequences which may arise from its use. The use of particular designations of countries or territories does not imply any judgement by the publisher, the IAEA, as to the legal status of such countries or territories, of their authorities and institutions or of the delimitation of their boundaries. The mention of names of specific companies or products (whether or not indicated as registered) does not imply any intention to infringe proprietary rights, nor should it be construed