Overview

The course is aimed at the Radiation Protection Adviser, those who supervise work, and those responsible for designing and monitoring work areas. It introduces the student to the general principles of protection against external radiation fields, the requirements for shielding and safety and warning features for different radiation applications in the workplace.

Our courses are taught to a high standard. Learning is further supported by comprehensively equipped training venues and in-depth, reference quality printed course information. Everything is done to give students a detailed understanding and competency in the skills being taught. The course is certificated.

Practical exercises and lectures

The emphasis is on the practical application of learning points. The course contains a number of group exercises in which the students are required to provide meaningful solutions to control exposure in a number of practical situations, and to make proposals for radiation protection for accident conditions.

It is strongly recommended that students should have either attended the Foundation in Radiological Protection course or have a detailed understanding of its content. This includes the principal characteristics of radiations, the processes by which radiation interacts with matter, the fundamental principles of controlling exposure, the concepts of ‘ALARA’ - As Low As Reasonably Achievable, ‘ALARP’ - As Low As Reasonably Practical and the roles of optimisation and cost-benefit analyses. Prior attendance on the UK Legislation and International Recommendations course would be an advantage.

This certificated course is assessed by examination.

Programme

By the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• Describe the principles of management of external exposure in a variety of industrial applications and state the principal means of controlling external exposure
• Recommend appropriate and optimum shielding materials and to calculate the approximate shielding thicknesses for photon, beta and neutron radiations
• Describe the consequences and magnitude of scatter in shielding situations
• Describe the requirements for engineered and warning systems, and apply them to a range of practical exposure situations
• Describe the particular exposure control features for industrial X-ray and gamma ray enclosures, site radiography, crystallography, and simple accelerators
• Propose effective controls in the design of a new facility for exposing sealed sources
• Describe the role of hazard assessments, risk assessments, systems of work and dose planning in controlling external exposure
• Describe the role and importance of audit procedures in developing safety management systems