NPRE 441: Principles of Radiation Protection

Spring, 2025

 

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

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

 

Lecture Hours and Lecture Room Information

Lecture hours: Monday and Wednesday at Noon to 1:50 pm.

Lecture room: 3018 Campus Instructional Facility.

 

Grading

6 homework: 20% (towards the final score)

4-6 quizzes: 30%

Midterm exam: 20%

Final exam: 20%

Term project: 10%

 

Teaching Assistants and Office Hours

 

Teaching Assistant: Runxia Wen, email: runxiaw2@illinois.edu

 

Office Hours:

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm every Thursday, 223 Talbot Lab.

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm every Friday, at 111E Talbot Lab.

 

Course Contents

 

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

 

Summary slides for Chapter 1

 

Chapter 2: Interaction of Radiation with Matter

·      Interactions of beta particles with matter

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

·      Interaction of X-rays and gamma-rays I – Interaction mechanisms

·      Interaction of X-rays and gamma-rays II – attenuation coefficients, calculation of energy absorption and energy transfer

·      Interactions of neutrons

 

Summary slides of Chapter 2

 

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

 

Summary slides of Chapter 4

 

Chapter 5: Radiation Dosimetry

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

·      Measurement of exposure and absorbed dose, the Bragg-Gray principle

·      Dose calculations associated with X-ray, gamma-ray, charged particles, and neutrons

·      Internally deposited radioisotopes and the MIRD method

 

Summary slides of Chapter 5

 

Chapter 6: Biological Effects of Radiation

(Note (01/12/24) that the contents covered in this chapter will be subject to further adjustment)

·      Basic concepts of cell biology and irradiation of cells, the time frame for radiation effects

·      Types of radiation damage, part 1 and part 2

·      Radiation effects (dose response curves, radiation effects to normal and tumor cells, relative biological effectiveness (RBE), dose rate fractionation, radioprotectors and radiosensitizers)

 

Chapter 7: External Radiation Protection

·    Basic principles for external radiation protection and gamma-ray shielding considerations

·    Shielding calculation for X-ray installations

·    Protection against external beta radiation

·    Neutron shielding

 

Summary slides of Chapter 7

 

Chapter 8: Radiation Protection Criteria and Exposure Limits

·      The objective of radiation protection

·      ICRP dosimetry models (for the respiratory system and gastrointestinal tract)

 

Homeworks

Please return your homework through email to our TA Runxia Wen, runxiaw2@illinois.edu

 

Homework 1, assigned on 02-03-2025. Due on at 5 pm on 02-10-25.

                                   

Paper Review Project on Radiobiology

                  TBA

 

Quizzes

            Quiz 1, 01-29-25.

Exams

Midterm Exam:

TBA

 

Final Exam:

TBA.