NPRE441: Principles of Radiation Protection

NPRE 441: Principles of Radiation Protection

Spring, 2022

Course Description

This course provides a comprehensive coverage of the principles and methodologies underlying radiation protection and radiation health physics. The major topics being discussed in this course include sources of ionizing radiation, the interaction of ionizing radiation with matter, essential tools and techniques for dosimetry measurements, counting statistics, principles of radiation dosimetry, biological effects of ionizing radiation, methods for deriving the radiation dose from internal and external radiation sources, and standard approaches for shielding design and radiation protection.

Textbook

Primary: J. Turner, "Atoms, Radiation, and Radiation Protection", Third Edition, Wiley-VHC, Inc. (2007).

Reference Books:

[1] H. Cember - "Introduction to Health Physics", 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill (2010).

[2] J. K. Shultis and R. E. Faw, "Radiation Shielding," American Nuclear Society (2000).
[3] R. E. Faw and J. K. Shultis, "Radiological Assessment: Sources and Doses, American Nuclear Society (1999).
[4] E. L. Alpen, "Radiation Biophysics," Academic Press (1998).
[5] G. F. Knoll, Radiation Detection and Measurements, Third Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Course Website:

http://courses.engr.illinois.edu/npre441/

Grading

8 homework: 20% (towards the final score)

6 quizzes: 30%

Midterm exam: 15%

Final exam: 20%

Term project: 15%

Teaching Assistants and Office Hours:

TA: Alvaro Pizarro Vallejos, email: <alvarop2@illinois.edu>

Format and Office Hours: TBA

Lecture Information:

Location: 3018 Campus Instructional Facility.

Time: Monday and Wednesday at noon-2.

Zoom Links:

Lecture:

https://illinois-phi.zoom.us/j/87899021367?pwd=QzN4N3dLM2VXeXdROEVuZXpoRkUwZz09

Office hour every Friday at 1-4 pm:

https://illinois.zoom.us/j/7523887025?pwd=SkpPL3ZtdW1UNDBoTnAvMzUxMmp6QT09

Lecture Notes

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Nucleus and Nuclear Radiation

· Nuclear structure and nuclear binding energy

· Alpha decay, beta decay, and secondary ionizing radiations

· X-ray and neutron sources

· Transformation kinetics and serial decay

· Naturally occurring radioactivity

Chapter 2: Interaction of Radiation with Matter

· Interaction of beta particles with matter

· Interaction heavy charged particles and phenomena associated with charged particle tracks

· Interaction of photons I – Interaction mechanisms

· Interaction of photons II – attenuation coefficients, calculation of energy absorption and energy transfer

· Interactions of neutrons

Chapter 3: Methods for Radiation Detection

(Note: this chapter will not be covered in NPRE441, but the conceptual understanding of basic radiation detection and measurement techniques would be needed for Chapters 4 and 5)

· Gas-filled detectors, ionization process, charge migration, ionization counters and proportional counters.

· Scintillation detectors

· Semiconductor detectors

· Neutron detection techniques

Chapter 4: Counting Statistics

· Statistical models for radioactive decay processes, Bernoulli processes, binomial, Poisson and Gaussian distributions

· Counting statistics, error, and error propagation

· False-positive and false-negative errors and delectability limits

· A brief introduction to Monte Carlo techniques

Chapter 5: Radiation Dosimetry

· Units, dose, exposure, and dose-exposure relationship

· Measurement of exposure and absorbed dose from X-rays, gamma-rays, and charged particles