CHP
ConsultantsTraining empowers your Staff, providing confidence to
carry out their duties. Lectures and hands on training can be provided to individuals, groups,
or as lectures to organization meetings. We can use your your materials, or subject matter prepared by CHP Consultants.
Typical training sessions are outlined below. They can be adapted to
suit your needs regardless of who is your dosimetry vendor. Suggestions
of new topics are always welcome.
Radiation Safety Officer or Basic Health Physics Course
A 40 hr course on Health Physics for new RSO's or as part of a general
training program. This course focuses on radiological fundamentals
to help RSO's get a good understanding of health physics. This
allows them to adapt to new situations by understanding the fundamental
concepts of dosimetry, instrumentation, regulations, radiation biology,
natural radiation, etc. Anyone can read a book, but do they
understand the key concepts of how it all fits together?
Film is the most commonly used dosimeter material in
the United States and the world. Like other dosimeters using a sensitive
medium with a high effective Z, film dosimeters are very sensitive to low
energy photons. This characteristic makes film an excellent dosimeter for
low dose applications. If film is processed using incorrect assumptions,
significant errors in dose estimation may result. This problem is common
in X-ray environments, especially fluoroscopy.
This lecture will enable your staff to understand the
use cycle of film dosimeters and their inherent strengths and weaknesses.
The performance and operating characteristics of typical film dosimeters
are discussed using real data and sample dosimeters. The processing of
dosimeters and typical quality control measures are discussed in the
context of their influence on the resulting measured dose. This lecture
will help improve the performance of dosimeters at your facility and yield
more accurate and lower doses.
TLD material stores energy from incident radiation by
trapping energized electrons. This stored energy is released to determine
the dose received. Many TLDs are relatively energy independent and are
useful for monitoring radiation dose in mixed fields (gamma, X-ray, beta
and neutron). The operational characteristics and design of TL dosimeters
(multi-element, extremity) are discussed with an emphasis on dosimeters
used at your facility. Quality control methods for your facility and
those employed by dosimetry vendors are presented along with practices and
applications that improve performance. Also discussed are the
characteristics of each dosimeter material and the associated limitations
of use.
Damage sites (or "tracks") created by incident recoil
particles (from neutrons) or direct damage (from alpha particles) are used
to indicate dose with CR-39 dosimeters. The tracks are read after the
damage sites are developed through a chemical etching process. These
dosimeters are relatively energy independent for fast neutrons, but
insensitive to thermal neutrons. Operational characteristics of CR-39 are
discussed in addition to quality control methods employed in the reading
process.
The great thing about Health Physics is there are so
many different problems we face every day, it never gets boring.
From understanding biological effects and communicating relative risks, to
radiation dosimetry, radiological fundamentals, instrumentation, air
sampling, and etc. Combinations of the above and other topics are
available. Call or email with your requests and suggestions.
CHP Consultants
