Changes in UK Occupational Exposures through the Years
Sam Watson works in the Radiation Assessments Department of the UK Health Security Agency ( UKHSA )
Some people are exposed to radiation as part of their job . Spread over the entire population , the annual dose for occupational exposure is about 0.02 % of the annual exposure .
The UKHSA periodically reviews the exposure of the UK population from sources of ionising radiation . The data come from a range of sources , including Approved Dosimetry Services , the Central Index of Dose Information , and relevant employers . This article looks at publicly available data previously published by UKHSA and its predecessors .
Occupational doses tend to be low . Over the decades there have been changes in practices regarding both working and monitoring , with some changes linked to the limits of detection associated with monitoring . The data presented here show some of the changes in occupational doses recorded in the UK civil nuclear industry , general industry , defence sector and medicine . As all data are provided voluntarily , there may not be a complete record of all occupational exposures received each year . However , the data shown are believed to be reasonably representative .
Civil Nuclear Industry
The UK civil nuclear sector has the most complete set of occupational exposure data , with records from the early 1980s until 2010 for four main sections of the industry – uranium enrichment , fuel fabrication , operating nuclear power stations and fuel reprocessing . Doses for workers in decommissioning and other unspecified areas are also available from 2004 to 2010 .
The graph below shows average worker doses , which fall dramatically over this period due to a downward trend in higher individual doses following increased attention to dose reduction methods and the use of remote equipment . The apparent increase in doses to enrichment workers after 2008 is believed to be because of changes in monitoring practices , rather than a true increase in doses .
8 Radiation Protection Today www . srp-rpt . uk