• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2024

International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) is an independent international organization that advances the science of radiological protection for the public benefit, particularly by providing recommendations and guidance on all aspects of protection against ionizing radiation. The ICRP is a community of more than 380 globally-recognized experts in radiological protection science, policy, and practice from more than 50 countries. As of January 2024, the ICRP is comprised of a Main Commission, the Scientific Secretariat, four Standing Committees, and 30 Task Groups under the four committees. The ICRP has released well over one hundred publications on all aspects of radiological protection. Most address a particular area within radiological protection, but a handful of the publications, the so-called fundamental recommendations, describe the overall system of radiological protection. The system for radiological protection is based on the current understanding of the science of radiation exposure and its effects along with value judgements. The ICRP offers recommendations to regulatory and advisory agencies and provides advice to management and professional staff with responsibilities for radiological protection. Legislation in most countries adheres closely to ICRP recommendations. The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) International Basic Safety Standards are based heavily on ICRP recommendations. ICRP recommendations form the core of radiological protection standards, legislation, programs, and practice worldwide.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.337-340
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• 2001

This paper reviews briefly the ICRP recommendations published before 1977, in 1977 (ICRP 26), in 1990 (ICRP 60) and in the near future (around 2005) mainly in the philosophy and principles. The great progress is appreciated. A discussion is presented at the end.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.154-159
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• 2011

To evaluate the radiation exposure of workers participating in task where high radiation exposure is expected, two-dosimeter is typically provided radiation workers, one on the chest and the other on the back, at Korean nuclear power plants (NPPs). In a previous study, the NCRP (55:50) algorithm was selected as the optimal two-dosimeter algorithm (TDA) with various field tests and this TDA has been applied to all Korean NPPs since 2006. In 2007, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) published the new ICRP recommendation, ICRP 103, which provides the revised weighting factors for both radiation and tissues and the new reference phantom. In this study, the applicability of current NCRP (55:50) algorithm at Korean NPPs for ICRP 103 was analyzed. As a result, it was found that the NCRP (55:50) algorithm is still effective to estimate the effective dose of workers under ICRP 103.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.424-435
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• 2016

Background: The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommendations and the Federal Guidance Report (FGR) published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been widely applied worldwide in the fields of radiation protection and dose assessment. The dose conversion coefficients of the ICRP and FGR are widely used for assessing exposure doses. However, before the coefficients are used, the user must thoroughly understand the derivation process of the coefficients to ensure that they are used appropriately in the evaluation. Materials and Methods: The ICRP provides recommendations to regulatory and advisory agencies, mainly in the form of guidance on the fundamental principles on which appropriate radiological protection can be based. The FGR provides federal and state agencies with technical information to assist their implementation of radiation protection programs for the U.S. population. The system of radiation dose assessment and dose conversion coefficients in the ICRP and FGR is reviewed in this study. Results and Discussion: A thorough understanding of their background is essential for the proper use of dose conversion coefficients. The FGR dose assessment system was strongly influenced by the ICRP and the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), and is hence consistent with those recommendations. Moreover, the ICRP and FGR both used the scientific data reported by Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) and United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) as their primary source of information. The difference between the ICRP and FGR lies in the fact that the ICRP utilized information regarding a population of diverse races, whereas the FGR utilized data on the American population, as its goal was to provide guidelines for radiological protection in the US. Conclusion: The contents of this study are expected to be utilized as basic research material in the areas of radiation protection and dose assessment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.1949-1958
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• 2023

The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 116 was released to provide a comprehensive dataset of the dose coefficients (DCs) for external exposures produced with the adult reference voxel phantoms of ICRP Publication 110. Although an advanced skeletal dosimetry method for photons and neutrons using fluence-to-dose response functions (DRFs) was introduced in ICRP Publication 116, the ICRP-116 skeletal DCs were calculated by using the simple method conventionally used (i.e., doses to red bone marrow and endosteum approximated by doses to spongiosa and/or medullary cavities). In the present study, the photon and neutron DRFs were used to produce skeletal DCs of the ICRP-110 reference phantoms, which were then compared with the ICRP-116 DCs. For photons, there were significant differences by up to ~2.8 times especially at energies <0.3 MeV. For neutrons, the differences were generally small over the entire energy region (mostly <20%). The general impact of the DRF-based skeletal DCs on the effective dose calculations was negligibly small, supporting the validity of the ICRP-116 effective DCs despite their skeletal DCs derived from the simple method. Meanwhile, we believe that the DRF-based skeletal DCs could be beneficial in better estimates of skeletal doses of individuals for risk assessments.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.1495-1504
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• 2017

In a previous study, a set of polygon-mesh (PM)-based skin models including a $50-{\mu}m-thick$ radiosensitive target layer were constructed and used to calculate skin dose coefficients (DCs) for idealized external beams of electrons. The results showed that the calculated skin DCs were significantly different from the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 116 skin DCs calculated using voxel-type ICRP reference phantoms that do not include the thin target layer. The difference was as large as 7,700 times for electron energies less than 1 MeV, which raises a significant issue that should be addressed subsequently. In the present study, therefore, as an extension of the initial, previous study, skin DCs for three other particles (photons, protons, and helium ions) were calculated by using the PM-based skin models and the calculated values were compared with the ICRP-116 skin DCs. The analysis of our results showed that for the photon exposures, the calculated values were generally in good agreement with the ICRP-116 values. For the charged particles, by contrast, there was a significant difference between the PM-model-calculated skin DCs and the ICRP-116 values. Specifically, the ICRP-116 skin DCs were smaller than those calculated by the PM models-which is to say that they were under-estimated-by up to ~16 times for both protons and helium ions. These differences in skin dose also significantly affected the calculation of the effective dose (E) values, which is reasonable, considering that the skin dose is the major factor determining effective dose calculation for charged particles. The results of the current study generally show that the ICRP-116 DCs for skin dose and effective dose are not reliable for charged particles.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.843-852
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• 2019

In the present study, we established a comprehensive dataset of dose coefficients (DCs) of the new meshtype ICRP reference computational phantoms (MRCPs) for idealized external exposures of photons and electrons with the Geant4 code. Subsequently, the DCs for the nine organs/tissues, calculated for their thin radiosensitive target regions, were compared with the values calculated by averaging the absorbed doses over the entire organ/tissue regions to observe the influence of the thin sensitive regions on dose calculations. The result showed that the influences for both photons and electrons were generally insignificant for the majority of organs/tissues, but very large for the skin and eye lens, especially for electrons. Furthermore, the large influence for the skin eventually affected the effective dose calculations for electrons. The DCs of the MRCPs also were compared with the current ICRP-116 values produced with the current ICRP-110 reference phantoms. The result showed that the DCs for the majority of organs/ tissues and effective dose were generally similar to the ICRP-116 values for photons, except for very low energies; however, for electrons, significant differences from the ICRP-116 values were found in the DCs, particularly for superficial organs/tissues and skeletal tissues, and also for effective dose.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.05a
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• pp.367-367
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• 1999

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.325.1-325
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• 1999

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.321.1-321
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• 1999