Some important issues in developing basic radiation protection recommendations: dosimetric aspects

Some aspects of the difficulties encountered in the dose equivalent system used in radiation protection are explored and recent work to improve these deficiencies described. The philosophical advantages of a departure from the dose equivalent-based system and its replacement by a risk-based system are briefly discussed. The definition of dose equivalent and the debate concerning its physical dimensions and units are described. Dose equivalent is related to other physiological quantities in physics and the treatment of these quantities in the International System of Units compared. Practical problems in the determination of dose equivalent are illustrated using neutrons as an example. The proliferation of operational quantities for the evaluation of neutron dose equivalent and the concomitant potential for confusion when determinations of neutron dose equivalent are intercompared is described. The evaluation of fluence to dose equivalent conversion coefficients and methods of interpolation between recommended values are described. Particular emphasis is given to the accuracy and precision of dose equivalent estimation. Recent work of a Task Group of the ICRP to improve recommended conversion coefficients and the work of an ICRU committee to improve the definition of operational dose equivalent quantities is summarized. 125 references, 11 figures, 4 tables