Environmental and Source Monitoring for Purposes of Radiation Protection

The purpose of this Safety Guide is to provide international guidance, coherent with contemporary radiation protection principles and IAEA safety requirements, on the strategy of monitoring in relation to: (a) control of radionuclide discharges under practice conditions, and (b) intervention, such as in cases of nuclear or radiological emergencies or past contamination of areas with long lived radionuclides. Three categories of monitoring are discussed: monitoring at the source of the discharge (source monitoring), monitoring in the environment (environmental monitoring) and monitoring of individual exposure in emergencies (individual monitoring). The Safety Guide also provides general guidance on assessment of the doses to critical groups of the population due to the presence of radioactive materials or radiation fields in the environment both from routine operation of nuclear and other related facilities (practice) and from nuclear or radiological emergencies and past contamination of areas with long lived radionuclides (intervention). The dose assessments are based on the results of source monitoring, environmental monitoring, individual monitoring or their combinations. This Safety Guide is primarily intended for use by national regulatory bodies and other agencies involved in national systems of radiation monitoring, as well as by operators of nuclear installations and other facilities where natural or human made radionuclides are treated and monitored.