Industrial radiation hazards. Determining types, assessing hazards, and selecting measuring and monitoring instruments

In many plants, equipment that uses ionizing radiation helps workers perform useful tasks every day. At the same time, this activity could expose more than a million workers to radiation. Although a great deal of attention is focused on the potential exposure of workers to radiation at nuclear power plants, these workers represent only a small fraction of the total number of American workers who could be exposed to radiation. The number of workers in all of industry using radiation devices is increasing and significant growth is expected to continue. Ionizing radiation devices are used because they can perform tasks that cannot be done any other way. They also are used because they offer the best way to perform a task. The characteristics of radiation equipment reveal the reasons for its unique capabilities. Because it is not necessary to make contact with the material being radiated, a material can be measured while it is moving or while it is in liquid or slurry form. Measurements can be made in a darkened room. Radiation can see through the walls of pipes or vessels and can measure certain characteristics of the contents. These special abilities have produced a wide acceptance of this equipment in industry