Radiological Dose Assessment to Members of the Public Using Consumer Products Containing Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials in Korea

Soja Reuben Joseph and Juyoul Kim
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Soja Reuben Joseph: Department of Nuclear Power Plant Engineering, KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School, 658-91 Haemaji-ro Seosaeng-myeon, Ulju-gun, Ulsan 45014, Korea
Juyoul Kim: Department of Nuclear Power Plant Engineering, KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School, 658-91 Haemaji-ro Seosaeng-myeon, Ulju-gun, Ulsan 45014, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-15

Abstract: Various products containing a small number of added radionuclides are commonly available for use worldwide. However, frequent use of such products puts the public at risk of radiation exposure. In this study, dose assessments to members of the public using consumer products containing naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) were conducted for various usage scenarios to evaluate the external and internal exposure dose. Data for this study were obtained from previous literature and were statistically analyzed using Boxplot to determine the input data for assessment. A normalized value of activity concentration was used for dose evaluation. In addition to other external and internal dose calculation codes, analytical calculations were used to perform age-dependent. Based on analytical calculations, the highest total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) received from necklace products at the upper whiskers with an activity concentration of 4.21 Bq/g for 238 U, 24.4 Bq/g for 232 Th, and 0.55 Bq/g for 40 K for various age groups is 2.03 mSv/y for 1 year old, 1.24 mSv/y for 10 years old and 1.11 mSv/y for adult, which are above the international commission for radiation protection (ICRP) recommended public dose limit of 1 mSv/y. Results of external and internal exposure dose obtained using Microshield code, IMBA code and Visual Monte Carlo (VMC) code are all below the recommended public dose limit of 1 mSv/y.

Keywords: radioactive consumer products; dose assessment; internal and external exposure; ICRP; NORM; VMC; IMBA; Microshield (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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