Department of Physics

PHY 210: Radiation Safety

Course Information

Please note that exact details of the course can vary

Instructor: Sangho Nam; Radiation Safety Officer

Location: Radiation Safety Office ,  URI Bay campus

Semester: Fall every year
Credits: 1
Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Catalog Description: Radiation safety instruction sufficient to qualify students as radiation workers under state and federal regulations.

Course Goals & Outcomes

Upon completion, successful students will be able to:

• Obtain basic information of radiation safety including understanding basic principles of ionizing radiation, the risks of working with radioactive materials/radiation producing machines etc.
• Obtain relevant information to work safely and confidently with radiation sources while maintaining the professional standard of ALARA.
• Understand typical everyday radiation safety topics, how radiation safety programs are implemented in a university, research, and or hospital setting.
• Obtain an in-depth understanding of a student-selected radiation protection topic through an independent study project

Course Description

This course includes lectures, discussion, student project, and exams. The course will be based on the lectures material.  Handouts will be electronically distributed before the lecture.

Topics covered in this course include:

• Introduction, Understanding of Radiation Safety
• Radiation interactions with matter
• Dosimetry and ALARA
• Radiation Units and Exposure/Activity
• Radiation detection and measurement
• The internal and external radiation hazard
• Biological effects of Radiation
• Radioactive waste
• Introducing radiography equipment
• Incident/Accident discussion
• Policies and Regulations related to Radiation Safety (State and Federal)
• Typical role of Radiation safety office/Medical Physicist

Recommended References: 

Introduction to Health Physics, Herman Cember, and Atom, Radiation, and Radiation Protection, James Turner

Grading

Attendance/Project (30%); Midterm (30%); Final Exam (40%)

Contact Information:

Sangho Nam; Radiation Safety Officer

Email : snam@rinsc.ri.gov

LEC: (1 cr.) Radiation safety instruction sufficient to qualify students as radiation workers under state and federal regulations. (Lec. 1)