Subpart 380.2: Definitions
(Statutory authority : Environmental Conservation Law, arts. 1, 3, 17, 19, 27, 29, 37)
§380-2.1 General definitions.
(a) For the purposes of this Part, the following terms shall have the following meanings when used in this Part.
(1) "Absorbed dose" means the energy imparted by ionizing radiation per unit mass of irradiated material. The units of absorbed dose are the rad and the gray (Gy).
(2) "Activity" is the rate of disintegration (transformation) or decay of radioactive material. The units of activity are the curie (Ci) and the becquerel (Bq).
(3) "Adult" means an individual 18 or more years of age.
(4) "Agreement state" means any state that has entered into an affective agreement with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission pursuant to Section 274b. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended [see section 380-1.6 of this Part].
(5) "ALARA" (as low as reasonably achievable) means making every reasonable effort to maintain exposures to radiation as far below the dose limits in this part as is practical consistent with the purpose for which the licensed activity is undertaken, taking into account the state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to benefits to the public health and safety, and other societal and socioeconomic considerations, and in relation to utilization of licensed radioactive materials in the public interest.
(6) "Annual limit on intake" (ALI) means the derived limit for the amount of radioactive material taken into the body of an adult worker by inhalation or ingestion in a year. ALI is the smaller value of intake of a given radionuclide in a year by the reference man that would result in a committed effective dose equivalent of 5 rems (0.05 Sv) or a committed dose equivalent of 50 rems (0.5 Sv) to any individual organ or tissue. (ALI values for intake by ingestion and by inhalation of selected radionuclides are given in Table I, Columns 1 and 2, of Subpart 380-11 of this Part).
(7) "Applicant" means the person applying for a permit issued pursuant to this Part.
(8) "Background radiation" means radiation from cosmic sources; naturally occurring radioactive materials, including radon (except as a decay product of source or special nuclear material); and global fallout as it exists in the environment from anthropogenic sources. "Background radiation" does not include radiation from licensed radioactive material.
(9) "Biological material" means material derived from living organisms.
(10) "Class" (or lung class or inhalation class) means a classification scheme for inhaled material according to its rate of clearance from the pulmonary region of the lung. Materials are classified as D, W, or Y, which applies to a range of clearance half-times: for Class D (Days) of less than 10 days, for Class W (Weeks) from 10 to 100 days, and for Class Y (Years) of greater than 100 days.
(11) "CFR" means the Code of Federal Regulations.
(12) "Collective dose" is the sum of the individual doses received in a given period of time by a specified population from exposure to a specified source of radiation.
(13) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
(14) "Committed dose equivalent" (HT,50 ) means the dose equivalent to organs or tissues of reference (T) that will be received from an intake of radioactive material by an individual during the 50-year period following the intake.
(15) "Committed effective dose equivalent" (HE,50 ) is the sum of the products of the weighting factors applicable to each of the body organs or tissues that are irradiated and the committed dose equivalent to these organs or tissues (HE,50 = wT HT,50 ).
(16) "Deep-dose equivalent" (Hd ), which applies to external whole-body exposure, is the dose equivalent at a tissue depth of 1 cm (1000 mg/cm2).
(17) "Department" means the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
(18) "Derived air concentration" (DAC) means the concentration of a given radionuclide in air which, if breathed by the reference man for a working year of 2,000 hours under conditions of light work (inhalation rate 1.2 cubic meters of air per hour), results in an intake of one ALI. DAC values are given in Table I, Column 3, in Subpart 380-11 of this Part.
(19) "Derived air concentration-hour" (DAC-hour) is the product of the concentration of radioactive material in air (expressed as a fraction or multiple of the derived air concentration for each radionuclide) and the time of exposure to that radionuclide, in hours. A licensee may take 2,000 DAC-hours to represent one ALI, equivalent to a committed effective dose equivalent of 5 rems (0.05 Sv).
(20) "Discharge" means the controlled release of licensed material in effluents to the air, water, or sanitary sewer from radiation installations.
(21) "Dose" (or radiation dose) is a generic term that means absorbed dose, dose equivalent, effective dose equivalent, committed dose equivalent, committed effective dose equivalent, or total effective dose equivalent, as defined in section 380-2.3 of this Part.
(22) "Dose equivalent" (HT ) means the product of the absorbed dose in tissue, quality factor, and all other necessary modifying factors at the location of interest. The units of dose equivalent are the rem and sievert (Sv). Rem is the special unit and sievert is the SI unit used for any of the quantities expressed as dose equivalent.
(23) "Effective dose equivalent" (HE ) is the sum of the products of the dose equivalent to the organ or issue (HT ) and the weighting factors (wT ) applicable to each of the body organs or tissues that are irradiated HE = wT HT ).
(24) "Environmental Conservation Law" (or ECL) means Chapter 43-B of the Consolidated Laws of New York.
(25) "Exposure" means the quotient of dQ divided by dm where dQ is the absolute value of the total charge of the ions of one sign produced in air when all the electrons (negatrons and positrons) liberated by photons in a volume element of air having mass dm are completely stopped in air. The SI unit of exposure is the columb per kilogram (C/kg). [See section 380-2.2 of this Part].
(26) "External dose" means that portion of the dose equivalent received from radiation sources outside the body.
(27) "Extremities" means hand, elbow, arm below the elbow, foot, knee, and leg below the knee.
(28) "Eye dose equivalent" applies to the external exposure of the lens of the eye and is taken as the dose equivalent at a tissue depth of 0.3 centimeter (300 mg/cm²).
(29) "Generally applicable environmental radiation standards" means standards issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the authority of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, that impose limits on radiation exposures or levels, or concentrations or quantities of radioactive material, in the general environment outside the boundaries of locations under the control of persons possessing or using radioactive material [see section 380-1.6 of this Part].
(30) "Government agency" means any office, department, board, commission, bureau, division, council, authority, corporation, agency, or instrumentality of the State of New York.
(31) "Gray" [See section 380-2.3 of this Part].
(32) "Incinerator" means an enclosed device using controlled flame combustion to thermally break down radioactive waste to an ash residue that contains little or no combustible material.
(33) "Individual" means any human being.
(34) "Inspection" means an official examination or observation including, but not limited to, records, tests, surveys, and monitoring to determine compliance with rules, regulations, orders, requirements, and conditions of the department.
(35) "Internal dose" means that portion of the dose equivalent received from radioactive material taken into the body.
(36) "License" means a radioactive material license issued by the New York State Department of Labor, New York State Department of Health, New York City Department of Health, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or licensing agency of an agreement state, authorizing the receipt, possession, use, transfer, or disposal of radioactive material.
(37) "Licensee" means the holder of a license.
(38) "Licensing agency" means the state or federal government agency authorized to issue radioactive material licenses.
(39) "Licensed material" means radioactive material subject to general or specific licensing and regulatory control by the New York State Department of Labor, New York State Department of Health, New York City Department of Health, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or licensing agency of an agreement state.
(40) "Limits" (dose limits) means the permissible upper bounds of radiation doses.
(41) "Loss of control of licensed material" means the unintentional loss of containment of licensed material or licensed material whose location is unknown which may result in the unauthorized disposal or discharge of licensed material to the environment.
(42) "Member of the public" means an individual in a controlled or unrestricted area. However, an individual is not a member of the public during any period in which the individual receives an occupational dose.
(43) "Monitoring" (radiation monitoring, radiation protection monitoring) means the measurement of radiation levels, radioactive material concentrations, surface area activities, or quantities of radioactive material and the use of the results of these measurements to evaluate potential exposures and doses.
(44) "Nonstochastic effect" (deterministic effect) means a health effect, the severity of which varies with the dose and for which a threshold is believed to exist. Radiation-induced cataract formation is an example of a nonstochastic effect.
(45) "NORM" means any naturally occurring radioactive material.
(46) "NYCRR" means the Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York.
(47) "Occupational dose" means the dose received by an individual in the course of employment in which the individual's assigned duties involve exposure to radiation and to radioactive material from licensed and unlicensed sources of radiation, whether in the possession of the licensee or other person. Occupational dose does not include dose received from background radiation, as a patient from medical practices, from voluntary participation in medical research programs, or as a member of the general public.
(48) "Person" means--
(i) Any individual; public, private, or government corporation; joint stock company; industry; partnership; co-partnership; firm; association; trust; estate; public or private institution; agency, department, or bureau of the State, or group, political subdivision of the State, any other State or political subdivision thereof; federal government agencies other than the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission or Department of Energy; any foreign government or nation or any political subdivision of any such government or nation; and
(ii) Any legal subsidiary, successor, representative, agent, or agency of the foregoing, or any other legal entity whatsoever.
(49) "Permit" means a radiation control permit authorizing the disposal or discharge of radioactive material to the environment issued pursuant to this Part and the terms and conditions of that permit.
(50) "Permittee" means the radiation installation or person who has been issued a permit pursuant to this Part.
(51) "Quality Factor" (Q) means the modifying factor (listed in Tables 1 and 2 of section 380-2.3 of this Part) that is used to derive dose equivalent from absorbed dose.
(52) "Rad" [See section 380-2.3 of this Part].
(53) "Radiation" (ionizing radiation) means alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays, x-rays, neutrons, high-speed electrons, high-speed protons, and other particles capable of producing ions. Radiation, as used in this part, does not include non-ionizing radiation, such as radiowaves or microwaves, or visible, infrared, or ultraviolet light.
(54) "Radiation Safety Officer" means an individual who has the knowledge of and responsibility to apply appropriate radiation protection regulations, standards, and practices, and who is specifically authorized on a license.
(55) "Radioactive material" means any material (solid, liquid, or gas) which emits radiation spontaneously.
(56) "Radioactivity" means the transformation of unstable atomic nuclei by the emission of radiation.
(57) "Reference man" means a hypothetical aggregation of human physical and physiological characteristics determined by international consensus. These characteristics may be used by researchers and public health workers to standardize results of experiments and to relate biological insult to a common base.
(58) "Rem" [See section 380-2.3 of this Part].
(59) "Restricted area" means an area, access to which is limited by the licensee for the purpose of protecting individuals against undue risks from exposure to radiation and radioactive materials. Restricted area does not include areas used as residential quarters, but separate rooms in a residential building may be set apart as a restricted area.
(60) "Sanitary sewerage" means a system of public sewers for carrying off waste water and refuse, but excluding sewage treatment facilities, septic tanks, and leach fields owned or operated by the radiation installation.
(61) "Shallow-dose equivalent" (Hs ), which applies to the external exposure of the skin or an extremity, is taken as the dose equivalent at a tissue depth of 0.007 centimeter (7 mg/cm2) averaged over an area of 1 square centimeter.
(62) "SI" is the abbreviation for the International System of Units.
(63) "Sievert" [See section 380-2.3 of this Part].
(64) "Stochastic effect" (probabilistic effect) means a health effect that occurs randomly and for which the probability of the effect occurring, rather than its severity, is assumed to be a function of dose without threshold. Hereditary effects and cancer incidence are examples of stochastic effects.
(65) "Survey" means an evaluation of the radiological conditions and potential hazards incident to the production, use, transfer, release, disposal, or presence of radioactive material or other sources of radiation. When appropriate, such an evaluation includes a physical survey of the location of radioactive material and measurements or calculations of levels of radiation, or concentrations or quantities of radioactive material present.
(66) "Total Effective Dose Equivalent" (TEDE) means the sum of the deep-dose equivalent (for external exposures) and the committed effective dose equivalent (for internal exposures).
(67) "Unrestricted area" means an area, access to which is neither limited nor controlled by the licensee.
(68) "Week" means 7 consecutive days starting on Sunday.
(69) "Weighting factor", wT , for an organ or tissue (T) is the proportion of the risk of stochastic effects resulting from irradiation of that organ or tissue to the total risk of stochastic effects when the whole body is irradiated uniformly. For calculating the effective dose equivalent, the values of wT are:
Organ Dose Weighting Factors
|Organ or Tissue||wT|
|Red bone marrow||0.12|
a 0.30 results from 0.06 for each of 5 "remainder" organs (excluding the skin and the lens of the eye) that receive the highest doses.
b For the purpose of weighting the external whole body dose (for adding it to the internal dose), a single weighting factor, wT = 1.0, has been specified. The use of other weighting factors for external exposure will be approved on a case-by-case basis until such time as specific guidance is issued.
(70) "Whole body" means, for purposes of external exposure, head, trunk (including male gonads), arms above the elbow, or legs above the knee.
(71) "Year" means the period of time beginning in January used to determine compliance with the provisions of this Part. The permittee may change the starting date of the year used to determine compliance by the permit provided that the change is made at the beginning of the year and that no day is omitted or duplicated in consecutive years.
§380-2.2 Units of radioactivity.
For the purposes of this Part, activity is expressed in the special unit of curies (Ci) or in the SI unit of becquerels (Bq), or their multiples, or disintegrations (transformations) per unit of time.
(a) One becquerel = 1 disintegration per second (s-1).
(b) One curie = 3.7 x 1010 disintegrations per second = 3.7 x 1010 becquerels = 2.22 x 1012 disintegrations per minute.
§380-2.3 Units of radiation dose.
(a) Definitions. As used in this Part, the units of radiation doses are:
(1) "Gray" (Gy) is the SI unit of absorbed dose. One gray is equal to an absorbed dose of 1 Joule/kilogram (100 rads).
(2) "Rad" is the special unit of absorbed dose. One rad is equal to an absorbed dose of 100 ergs/gram or 0.01 joule/kilogram (0.01 gray).
(3) "Rem" is the special unit of any of the quantities expressed as dose equivalent. The dose equivalent in rems is equal to the absorbed dose in rads multiplied by the quality factor (1 rem = 0.01 sievert).
(4) "Sievert" is the SI unit of any of the quantities expressed as dose equivalent. The dose equivalent in sieverts is equal to the absorbed dose in grays multiplied by the quality factor (1 Sv = 100 rems).
(b) As used in this Part, the quality factors for converting absorbed dose to dose equivalent are shown in Table 1 below.
|Table 1 Quality Factors and Absorbed Dose Equivalencies
|Type of Radiation||Quality Factor (q)||Absorbed Dose Equal to a Unit Dose Equivalenta|
|X-, gamma, or beta radiation||1||1|
|Alpha particles, multiple-charged particles, fission fragments and heavy particles of unknown charge||20||0.05|
|Neutrons of unknown energy||10||0.1|
a Absorbed dose in rad equal to 1 rem or the absorbed dose in gray equal to 1 sievert.
(c) If it is more convenient to measure the neutron fluence rate than to determine the neutron dose equivalent rate in rems per hour or sieverts per hour, as provided in Table 1 in subdivision (b) of this section, 1 rem (0.01 Sv) of neutron radiation of unknown energies may, for purposes of the regulations in this Part, be assumed to result from a total fluence of 25 million neutrons per square centimeter incident upon the body. If sufficient information exists to estimate the approximate energy distribution of the neutrons, the radiation installation may use the fluence rate per unit dose equivalent or the appropriate Q value from Table 2 below to convert a measured tissue dose in rads to dose equivalent in rems. Table 2 Mean Quality Factors, Q, and Fluence per Unit Dose Equivalent for Monoenergetic Neutrons
|Fluence per Unit
(neutrons cm-2 rem-1)
|(thermal) 2.5 x 10-8||2||980 x 106|
|1 x 10-7||2||980 x 106|
|1 x 10-6||2||810 x 106|
|1 x 10-5||2||810 x 106|
|1 x 10-4||2||840 x 106|
|1 x 10-3||2||980 x 106|
|1 x 10-2||2.5||1010 x 106|
|1 x 10-1||7.5||170 x 106|
|1 x 10-1||11||39 x 106|
|1||11||27 x 106|
|2.5||9||29 x 106|
|5||8||23 x 106|
|7||7||24 x 106|
|10||6.5||24 x 106|
|14||7.5||17 x 106|
|20||8||16 x 106|
|40||7||14 x 106|
|60||5.5||16 x 106|
|1 x 102||4||20 x 106|
|2 x 102||3.5||19 x 106|
|3 x 102||3.5||16 x 106|
|4 x 102||3.5||14 x 106|
a Value of quality factor (Q) at the point where the dose equivalent is maximum in a 30-cm diameter cylinder tissue-equivalent phantom.
b Monoenergetic neutrons incident normally on a 30-cm diameter cylinder tissue-equivalent phantom.