NPRE 441: Principles of
Radiation Protection
Spring, 2026
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 from 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: Tahmid
Omi, email: <iomi2@illinois.edu>
Office Hours:
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm every
Friday, at 209D Talbot Lab.
Please feel free to
reach out to me if you would like to have extra meetings or office hours regarding
NPRE441.
Course Contents
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
·
Interactions of
beta particles with matter
· Interaction of 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
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 detection 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, the Bragg-Gray principle
· Dose calculation associated with X-ray, gamma-ray, charged particles, and neutrons
·
Internally deposited radioisotopes and the
MIRD method
Chapter 6:
Biological Effects of Radiation
·
Basic
principles of radiobiology
· 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
Chapter 8:
Radiation Protection Criteria and Exposure Limits
·
The objectives of radiation protection
·
ICRP dosimetry
models
Homeworks
To
be announced.
Paper Review Project
To
be announced.
Quizzes
To
be announced.
Exams
Midterm Exam:
To
be announced.
Final Exam:
To
be announced.