Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Organ dose reconstruction for the radiation epidemiological study of Korean radiation workers: The first dose evaluation for the Korean Radiation Worker Study (KRWS)

  • Tae-Eun Kwon (Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health) ;
  • Areum Jeong (National Radiation Emergency Medical Center, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Wi-Ho Ha (Korea Department of Nuclear Emergency Preparedness, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) ;
  • Dalnim Lee (National Radiation Emergency Medical Center, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Songwon Seo (National Radiation Emergency Medical Center, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences) ;
  • Junik Cho (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Euidam Kim (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Yoonsun Chung (Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University) ;
  • Sunhoo Park (National Radiation Emergency Medical Center, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences)
  • Received : 2022.03.30
  • Accepted : 2022.10.23
  • Published : 2023.02.25
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Abstract

The Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences has started a radiation epidemiological study, titled "Korean Radiation Worker Study," to evaluate the health effects of occupational exposure to radiation. As a part of this study, we investigated the methodologies and results of reconstructing organ-specific absorbed doses based on personal dose equivalent, Hp(10), reported from 1984 to 2019 for 20,605 Korean radiation workers. For the organ dose reconstruction, representative exposure scenarios (i.e., radiation energy and exposure geometry) were first determined according to occupational groups, and dose coefficients for converting Hp(10) to organ absorbed doses were then appropriately taken based on the exposure scenarios. Individual annual doses and individual cumulative doses were reconstructed for 27 organs, and the highest values were observed in the thyroid doses (on average 0.77 mGy/y and 10.47 mGy, respectively). Mean values of individual cumulative absorbed doses for the red bone marrow, colon, and lungs were 7.83, 8.78, and 8.43 mSv, respectively. Most of the organ doses were maximum for industrial radiographers, followed by nuclear power plant workers, medical workers, and other facility workers. The organ dose database established in this study will be utilized for organ-specific risk estimation in the Korean Radiation Worker Study.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by a grant of the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS), were funded by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC), Republic of Korea (No. 50091-2022).

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