Alert

Due to a lapse in appropriations, the NRC has ceased normal operations. However, excepted and exempted activities necessary to maintain critical health and safety functions—as well as essential progress on designated critical activities, including those specified in Executive Order 14300—will continue, consistent with the OMB-Approved NRC Lapse Plan.

Health Physics Questions and Answers - Question 31

Question 31: Are students and volunteers subject to the occupational dose limits? For example, nuclear medicine students, or "candy stripers" that transport nuclear medicine patients or perform volunteer work in a nuclear medicine department.

Answer: Occupational dose is defined in revised Part 20 as "the dose received by an individual in a restricted area or in the course of employment in which the individual's assigned duties involve exposure to radiation . . ." In the question above, the individual's assigned duties do involve exposure to radiation as a necessary feature of those duties; therefore, the students and volunteer are subject to the occupational dose limits.

(Reference: 10 CFR 20.1003, 10 CFR 20.1201)

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Friday, November 24, 2017