Development and validation of tools for risk evaluation in low dose radiation protection

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Nuclear power currently provides approximately 14% of Canada's electricity. In order to guarantee radiation protection for the workers at nuclear power stations, it is of great importance to have accurate radiation measurement devices and dose computational tools. There are technical limitations in the current radiation measurement technology, particularly for low dose beta and neutron radiation fields, and therefore, this research aims to develop advanced radiation detectors and instrumentation to address them. The developed radiation detectors and signal processing systems will be tested and eventually used at nuclear power plants. Another challenge we face in the nuclear power industry is radiation protection for the environment. To date, radiation protection has mainly focused on protecting humans, but recent moves worldwide suggest that in the near future legislators will have to put in place measures specifically aimed at protecting the environment. How to do this is the issue, given the complexity of ecosystems and the existence of multiple stressors other than radiation in most environments. Hence, this research will seek to correlate low radiation doses measured with the newly developed detectors, with impacts on populations, bearing in mind that such impacts may not always be adverse. Moreover, the research team will also attempt to understand low radiation dose mechanisms. This is the key to developing bio-indicators and bio-sensors which can alert us to subtle impacts which may not be immediately observable but can have insidious effects which later become important. The proposed research team is at the forefront in radiation measurement and biology, and has a wide network of international collaborators.