The established standards of radiation safety. Permissible radiation standards

In the era of the development of nuclear weapons and nuclearenergy is not easy to stay away from what is happening, and therefore the radiation safety standards have become particularly relevant. Their knowledge may help to adequately assess the situation that may arise in the event of a nuclear catastrophe. Despite the fact that the cold war was long over, the most dangerous weapons of mass destruction did not cease to exist, and the peaceful atom often led to horrible consequences. The most tragic example is the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, when permissible radiation rates were overestimated tenfold, if not taken into account at all. Many liquidators and victims of this virtually knew nothing.

In the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and manyOther states have established generally accepted standards for radiation safety. They are enshrined in laws and departmental regulations. In the first place, the radiation safety standards concern workers of nuclear power plants, radiation-unsafe military and other facilities.

Moving from generalized knowledge of these norms,it is necessary to directly characterize and specify them. The majority of reference books treats radiation safety standards as the limiting doses of radiation to humans by radiation, which are considered relatively harmless to health. In scientific understanding, they are advisory in nature. Mainly, such standards are set relative to the summed dose of radiation from all sources of radiation, which affects a person during a year.

Radiation doses are measured in grays and radas.These are fairly generalized units that do not take into account the fact that exposure to the same doses of different types of radiation entails various biological damages. For example, a dose of 1 rad of alpha radiation causes more than 20 times more biological damage than 1 rad of gamma or beta radiation. Radiation safety standards with similar differences in biological effects are calculated using the coefficient of quality of the type of radiation (relative biological effectiveness) - a value that is approximately determined.

A more objective assessment of the effects of radiation onA specific living organism is carried out taking into account the so-called equivalent (effective) dose. It is determined by multiplying the absorbed dose (in rad) by the coefficient of radiation quality (QC); its non-system unit is considered biological. equiv. glad (ber). According to the SI system, the equivalent dose is expressed in sieverts (Sv). 1 Sv = 1 J / kg = 1 Gy, 1 Sv = 100 ber. The permissible rate of radiation in accordance with fixed standards for humans is not more than 0.1 ber (with the exception of natural sources of radiation). Professionals working with artificial sources of radiation (employees of nuclear power plants, for example) should not receive exposure to more than 5 ber per year.

Therefore, it is necessary to be able to count andcompare radiation rates. There are also many individual means of measuring radiation available on the market. If there is a risk of emergencies associated with a radiation threat, it is important to remember about the need to use personal protective equipment and sorbents.