Radiation Protection Assessment 1

Georges Chahni
November 2022

Part A
Deterministic Effects: These are effects that are immediately identifiable as symptoms of a
radiation dose. These effects are predicatable and happen after a threshold dose is attained, as seen
in figure 1.

Figure 1: Reponse vs Dose diagram for Deterministic effects showing a sigmoidal curve.

This threshold dose is represented using a sigmoidal curve as it describes more or less accurately
how the response drops off or is insignificant. The main quality of these effects is that they are
statistically determinidtic (thus the name) meaning they are predicatable and reproducable, for ex-
ample skin damage and cataracts will happen when exposed to a dose X greater than the threshold
dose.

Stochastic Effects: These Effects are random and come as a result of sustained levels of radiation.
The possibility of sustaining a response is probabilistic and scales linearly with the dose as the
dose-response diagram in figure 2 shows.

Figure 2: Reponse Probability vs Dose diagram for Stochastic effects showing a linear relationship
between Reponse Probability and Dose.

These effects include induced cancers and genetic mutations, and with a given dose we can only
cite the probability that they may occur given a specific dose.

1
 The key difference between Deterministic and Stochastic Effects that should be kept in mind
is that with a given dose, deterministic effects will result in a direct response whereas stochastic
effects would only increase in probability.

Part B
I
The total annual absorbed dose to the thyroid is the sum of the Thyroid only dose, the dose from
source X and the background radiation.
• The background radiation amounts to 1.2mGy assuming a weighting factor of 1 to the thyroid.

• The dose from X has to be calculated via the effective dose contribution as: 10kBq
50kBq × 1mSv.
The absorbed dose is then the effective dose contribution divided by the product of the tissue
weighting factors:
0.2
= 5mGy.
1 × 0.04
The total dose to the thyroid is then 1.2 + 5 = 6.2mGy.

II
The total annual absorbed dose to the thyroid is the sum of the Thyroid only dose, the dose from
source X and the background radiation.
• The background radiation amounts to 1.2mGy assuming a weighting factor of 1 to the lungs.
• The dose from alpha radiation to the lungs then has to be calculated via the effective dose
contribution as:
3.6
= 1.5mGy.
20 × 0.12
The total dose to the lungs is then: 1.2 + 1.5 = 2.7mGy.

III
The total annual effective dose is the sum of the above:

1.2 + 3.6 + 0.2 = 5mGy

IV
The annual dose limit (1mSv) describes controllable doses and not those due to background effects.
This is 0.2mSv in our case which falls well below the annual dose limit and so no overexposure has
occurred.