Radiation protection, setting the scene

Radiation sources of a wide range of type and energy are used extensively throughout industry, research, medicine, educational establishments and the public domain. Sealed source activities range from a few kilo Bequerels in smoke detectors to terra Bequerels in irradiation plants for sterilisation of medical equipment. X-rays sources range in energy from a hundred kilo electron volts for dental X-ray equipment to hundreds of millions of electron volts in research accelerators. Aspects of standards, cooperation and legislation are discussed