Shielding calculations. Optimization vs. Paradigms

Many radiation shielding barriers in Cuba have been designed according to the criterion of Maxi-mum Projected Dose Rates. This fact has created the paradigm of low dose rates. Because of this, dose rate levels greater than units of Sv.h-1 would be considered unacceptable by many specialists, regardless of the real exposure times. Nowadays many shielding barriers are being designed using dose constraints in real exposure times. Behind the new barriers, dose rates could be notably greater than those behind the traditional ones, and it does not imply inadequate designs or constructive errors. In this work were obtained significant differences in dose rate levels and shield-ing thicknesses calculated by both methods for some typical installations. The work concludes that real exposure time approach is more adequate in order to optimise Radiation Protection, although this method should be carefully applied