• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.146-155
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• 2016

As the probability of exposure to radiation increases due to an increase in the use of radioisotopes and radiation generators, the importance of a radiation safety management field is being highlighted. We intend to help radiation workers with exposure management by identifying the degree of radiation exposure and contamination to determine an efficient method of radiation safety management. The personal exposure doses of the radiation workers at the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences measured every quarter during a five-year period from Jan. 1, 2011 till Dec. 31, 2015 were analyzed using a TLD (thermoluminescence dosimeter). The spatial dose rates of radiation-controlled areas were measured using a portable radioscope, and the level of surface contamination was measured at weekly intervals using a piece of smear paper and a low background alpha/beta counter. Though the averages of the depth doses and the surface doses in 2012 increased from those in 2011 by about 14%, the averages were shown to have decreased every year after that. The exposure dose of 27 mSv in 2012 increased from that in 2011 in radiopharmaceutical laboratories and, in the case of the spatial dose rate, the rate of decrease in 2012 was shown to be similar to the annual trend of the whole institute. In the case of the surface contamination level, as the remaining radiation-controlled area with the exception of the I-131 treatment ward showed a low value less than $1.0kBq/m^2$, the annual trend of the I-131 treatment ward was shown to be similar to that of the entire institute. In conclusion, continuous attention should be paid to dose monitoring of the radiation-controlled areas where unsealed sources are handled and the workers therein.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.159-164
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• 2022

The study developed a radiation dose measurement program in the radiology laboratory to measure how much exposure the students are exposed to during the radiology class, to request for the improvement and the revision of the current Nuclear Safety Act. The experimental program is shown in the following figure, and experiments were conducted to determine the degree of radiation exposure in the control room with a lead gown at a distance of 1 m, 2 m, and 1 m, and in a control room with a radiographic lead glass wall. The duration of the experiment was 3 months from April to June, when radiation imaging practice classes were conducted, and 128 hours of imaging practice per month were conducted. In order to find out the dose of radiation dose during radiology imaging practice class, the experiment was carried out from April to June for 3 months, and according to the program, the results of exposure dose were 0.34 mSv at 1 m distance, 0.01 mSv at shielding of lead gown at 1 m distance, 0.16 mSv at 2 m distance, and 0.01 mSv at control room with radiation lead glass wall. The exposure dose from the test results was much below the annual general public limit dose of 1 mSv. The restriction on the operation of the radiation equipment in the practice of the students is a regulation that infringes the right of students to learn, and amendments or exemptions of Nuclear Safety Act should be enacted to ensure that it does not violate the fundamental right to learn for students in radiology.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.81-87
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• 2020

Background: Kori unit #1 is permanently shut down after a 40-year lifetime. The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission recommends establishing initial decommissioning plans for all nuclear and radwaste treatment facilities. Therefore, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) must establish an initial and final decommissioning plan for radwaste-treatment facilities. Radiation safety assessment, which constitutes one chapter of the decommissioning plan, is important for establishing a decommissioning schedule, a strategy, and cost. It is also a critical issue for the government and public to understand. Materials and Methods: This study provides a method for assessing external radiation dose to workers during decommissioning. An external dose is calculated following each exposure scenario, decommissioning strategy, and working schedule. In this study, exposure dose is evaluated using the deterministic method. Physical characterization of the facility is obtained by both direct measurement and analysis of the drawings, and radiological characterization is analyzed using the annual report of KAERI, which measures the ambient dose every month. Results and Discussion: External doses are calculated at each stage of a decommissioning strategy and found to increase with each successive stage. The maximum external dose was evaluated to be 397.06 man-mSv when working in liquid-waste storage. To satisfy the regulations, working period and manpower must be managed. In this study, average and cumulative exposure doses were calculated for three cases, and the average exposure dose was found to be about 17 mSv/yr in all the cases. Conclusion: For the three cases presented, the average exposure dose is well below the annual maximum effective dose restriction imposed by the international and domestic regulations. Working period and manpower greatly affect the cost and entire decommissioning plan; hence, the chosen option must take account of these factors with due consideration of worker safety.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.563-571
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• 2011

The purpose of the study was to evaluation of the radiation dose reduction using various automatic exposure control (AEC) systems in different manufactures multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT). We used three different manufacturers for the study: General Electric Healthcare, Philips Medical systems and Siemens Medical Solutions. The general scanning protocol was created for the each examination with the same scanning parameters as many as possible. In the various AEC systems, the evaluation of reduced-dose was evaluated by comparing to fixed mAs with using body phantom. Finally, when we applied to AEC for three manufacturers, the radiation dose reduction decreased each 35.3% in the GE, 58.2% in the Philips, and 48.6% in the Siemens. This applies to variety of the AEC systems which will be very useful to reduce the dose and to maintain the high quality.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 2015

Research and investigation is required for the exposure dose of radiation workers to work in the dental hospital as increasing interest in exposure dose of the dental hospital recently accordingly, study aim to minimize radiation exposure by making a follow-up study of individual exposure doses of radiation workers, analyzing the status on individual radiation exposure management, prediction the radiation disability risk levels by radiation, and alerting the workers to the danger of radiation exposure. Especially given the changes in the dental hospital radiation safety awareness conducted the study in order to minimize radiation exposure. This study performed analyses by a comparison between general and dental hospital, comparing each occupation, with the 116,220 exposure dose data by quarter and year of 5,811 subjects at general and dental hospital across South Korea from January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2012. The following are the results obtained by analyzing average values year and quarter. In term of hospital, average doses were significantly higer in general hospitals than detal ones. In terms of job, average doses were higher in radiological technologists the other workes. Especially, they showed statistically significant differences between radiological technologists than dentists. The above-mentioned results indicate that radiation workers were exposed to radiation for the past 5 years to the extent not exceeding the dose limit (maximum $50mSv\;y^{-1}$). The limitation of this study is that radiation workers before 2008 were excluded from the study. Objective evaluation standards did not apply to the work circumstance or condition of each hospital. Therefore, it is deemed necessary to work out analysis criteria that will be used as objective evaluation standard. It will be necessary to study radiation exposure in more precise ways on the basis of objective analysis standard in the furture. Should try to minimize the radiation individual dose of radiation workers.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.39-48
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• 2011

In mass casualty situation due to radiological accidents, it is important to start aggressive management with rapid triage decisions. External contamination needs immediate decontamination and internal contamination should be treated with special expertise and equipment to prevent the rapid uptake of radionuclides by target organs. Acute radiation syndrome shows a sequence of events that varies with the severity of the exposure. More severe exposures generally lead to more rapid onset of symptoms and severe clinical findings. After the massive exposure, various systems of the body reflect their severe damages that can lead to death within hours or up to several months. The disease progression has classically been divided into four stages: prodromal, latent, manifest illness, and recovery or death. Three characteristic clusters of symptoms including the hematopoietic syndrome, the gastrointestinal syndrome and the cerebrovascular syndrome are all associated with the acute radiation syndrome. The standard medical management of the patients with a potentially survivable radiation exposure includes good medical, surgical and supportive measures. Specific treatment with cytokines and bone marrow transplantation should be considered. The management of internal contamination is much the same as the treatment of poisoning. The standard decontamination should be applied to reduce uptake, and the chelating agents can be administered to enhance the clearance of radioisotopes. Radioactive iodine ($^{131}I$) as one of the nuclear fission products can increase the incidence of thyroid cancer in children. Potential benefit of potassium iodide prophylaxis is greater especially in neonates, infants and small children.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.97-118
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• 2022

The use of diagnostic radiation in medical institutions is rapidly increasing. Accordingly, the collective effective dose is on the rise every year. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the radiation exposure of the person undergoing the radiation examination as low as reasonably achievable. And we must establish a legal system to perform the safe management of radiation for diagnosis efficiently. In this way, I went over the problems of the Act and Subordinate Statutes regarding radiation safety management for diagnosis. As a result, the main contents are as follows. First, in the 「Medical Service Act」, there is no basis for the Safety Inspection Institute of Radiation and Radiation Exposure Measuring Institutes. And there are no provisions concerning delegation of administrative disposition. Therefore, it is necessary to secure legal justification by providing the basis for the Safety Inspection Institute of Radiation along with Radiation Exposure Measuring Institutes and the basis for administrative dispositions against these institutions in the 「Medical Service Act」. Second, the 「Rules on the Installation and Operation of Special Medical Equipment 」 should be integrated with the 「Rules on the Safety Management of Radiation Generators for Diagnostics」 to unify administrative procedures such as reporting for radiation special medical equipment for diagnosis. Third, in the case of violating the diagnostic radiation safety management standards in the 「Rules on the Safety Management of Radiation Generators for Diagnostics」, it is necessary to supplement the insufficient sanctions such as administrative disposition. Fourth, regulating diagnostic radiation and therapeutic radiation used in medical institutions with the dual legal system of the 「Medical Act」 and the 「Nuclear Safety Act」 is not efficient in the safety management of diagnostic radiation. Therefore, it is necessary to uniformly regulate diagnostic radiation and all medical radiation, including therapeutic radiation and nuclear medicine, in the 「Medical Service Act」 system.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.205-214
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• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of the study is to investigate the current status and radiographic safety management in Korea. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 200 dental hygienists in Jeonbuk province from September 1, 2014 and October 31, 2014. The questionnaire consisted of general characteristics of the subjects, radiation knowledge, radiation safety management, and radiation exposure anxiety. Data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 program. Results: Duration of clinical experience(r=0.142) and number of daily radiation shot(r=0.145) showed a positive correlation to radiation safety management, and a nrgative correlation to use of intraoral films and digital devices(r=-0.587). A logistic regression analysis was performed in order to evaluate the influence on radiography knowledge. The results showed that the factors had significant influences on the age group over 41 years old(OR 7.25; 95% CI 1.30-40.43) and those who took a position above team leader(OR 0.23; 95% CI 0.59-0.90). Conclusions: It is very important to have the safety management toward dental intraoral imaging and radiograpgic shot in the dental hygienists. Continuous efforts should be emphasized on radiographic safety management and behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.357-363
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• 2022

This study aims to improve the safety inspection awareness of occupational exposure and help radiation safety management by analyzing radiation exposure doses by occupational type of radiation related-workers and radiation workers. Radiation-related workers and radiation workers were classified into three occupations (radiological technologist, doctors, and nurses). A nominal risk coefficient based on ICRP 103 was used to calculate the probability of causing side effects of the lungs due to exposure doses. As a result of analyzing the exposure dose of all workers for one year, the exposure dose of radiological technologist among radiation-related workers was 1.63 ± 2.84 mSv, doctors 0.12 ± 0.22 mSv, and nurses 0.59 ± 1.08 mSv. The one-year deep dose for radiation workers was 2.44 ± 3.30 mSv for radiological technologists, 0.19 ± 0.26 mSv for doctors, and 0.12 ± 0.00 mSv for nurses. Due to this dose, the probability of causing side effects in the lungs was 1.2 per 100,000 radiological technologist, 0.096 doctors, and 0.06 nurses. In this study, it is believed that the probability of side effects on lungs by occupation of radiation exposure dose will be studied and used as useful data for radiation safety management in relation to probabilistic effects in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.249-255
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• 2023

In this study, radiation exposure doses were measured in the course of clinical practice of radiation workers, radiological technologists in the radiation-related worker group, and preliminary-radiological technologists who were classified as frequent visitors. Radiological technologists who worked in the radiation area of C University Hospital in Incheon for a year from January 2021 and 121 students who completed clinical practice at the same medical institution from July 1 to August 31 were the subjects of the study. The nominal risk factor based on ICRP 103 was used to evaluate the probability of side effects due to the exposure dose to the lungs, which are organs at risk of damage due to radiation exposure dose. During the clinical practice period, radiology students, who were classified as frequent visitors, had a surface dose of 0.98 ± 0.14 mSv and a deep dose of 0.93 ± 0.14 mSv. In other words, 6.7 per 1,000,000 for shallow dose and 6.4 per 1,000,000 for deep dose were found to have side effects due to exposure to the lungs. This is a value in terms of exposure dose in one year. Considering that the radiation (science) education course is 3 or 4 years, systematic management and attention to prospective radiation workers who are going to clinical practice are required, and the stochastic effect of radiation In relation to this, it is considered that it will be used as basic data for radiation safety management.