Development and Validation of Physical and Biological Methods for Low Dose Radiation Protection

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Nuclear power currently provides approximately 15% 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 instruments and dose computation tools. There are technical limitations in the current radiation detection and measurement instruments, particularly for low dose mixed radiation fields (for example, beta and gamma mixed fields). To address the limitations, this Alliance research aims to develop advanced radiation detectors and instrumentation. The developed radiation detectors and signal processing systems will be eventually used at nuclear power plants. Another important challenge we face in nuclear power industry is to understand the true effects and risks of low-level radiation exposure taking account of the new discoveries in this area. Satisfying the intersecting interests of nuclear workers, the public and the environment is only possible in an atmosphere where trust is high and uncertainty is low. Hence, this research will seek to correlate low radiation doses measured with the newly developed detectors, with impacts on populations. The research team will lead modern research into long-term low 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.