“Health Physics in military radiation protection”

1. HEALTH PHYSICS IN THE MILITARY
RADIATION PROTECTION
Raffaele Zagarella
Radio
Protec,on
Advisor
LTC Italian Army
Physicist
CISAM
S.Piero a Grado – PISA (IT)
Contacts:
raffaele.zagarella@esercito.difesa.it
Tel : +39050964120 /241
ROADSHOW
ROME 2014
27
May
2014

2. Index
• Ionizing
radia4on
in
the
Military
• Health
Physics
at
CISAM
• Partnership
for
joint
projects

3. Index
• Ionizing
radia4on
in
the
Military
• Health
Physics
at
CISAM
• Partnership
for
joint
projects

4. Armed
Forces
have
always
been
very
keen
in
the
adop4on
of
new
technologies
and
so
it
has
also
happened
as
far
as
ionizing
radia4on.
Star4ng
from
the
use
of
the
“pe#tes
curies”
(diagnos4c
X-­‐rays)
in
World
War
I
up
to
the
the
nuclear
ships
and
submarines
of
the
Cold
War.
So
military
personnel
(and
the
civil
servants
of
the
Ministry
of
Defense)
can
be
exposed
to
many
sources
of
ionizing
radia4on.
Most
of
them
are
similar
to
the
ones
present
in
civilian
usage
(industry,
hospital,
research),
but
addi4onally,
there
are
specific
threats
called
"RN”
that
can
derive
from
nuclear
weapons
or
terroris4c
aWacks
(dirty
bombs).

5. the
main
components
of
this
organiza4on
are:
a
special
military
unit
"7th
Regiment
Cremona"
in
Civitavecchia,
a
“NBC
School”
in
Rie4
and
highly
specialized
Center
“CISAM”
in
Pisa.
apart
from
the
medical
aspects
aWributed
to
the
military
health
care
service,
To
address
the
risk
from
IR
the
MoD
has
its
own
specific
organiza4on,

6. The
IR
military
regula4on
(DM
24/7/07
and
DPR
90/10)
is
similar
to
the
civil
law,
but
authori4es
for
approval
and
supervision
are
inside
the
Ministry
(i.e.
other
military
Commands):
Na4onal
Health
Care
Service
Prefecture
Provincial
Welfare
Depart.s
Reg.
Ag.
Env.
Prot.
(ARPA)
Radia4on
Protec4on
Law
in
the
military
Military Health
Service
Headquarters
of
the
AA.
FF.
Logis4cs
Commands
Military
Scien4fic
Centers

7. Index
• Ionizing
radia4on
in
the
Military
• Health
Physics
at
CISAM
• Partnership
for
joint
projects

8. Around
200
workers
(military
+
civil)
are
present
at
CISAM
in
the
technical
and
administra4ve
branches.
The
physicists,
chemists,
biologists
and
engineers
working
in
the
technical
Divisions
perform
many
du4es,
but
their
main
mission
is
“radia#on
safety”.
The
most
important
ac4vi4es
currently
carried
on,
are:
risk
assessment
for
IR
(around
300
sites),
radon
monitoring
(100
sites)
and
TLD
dosimetry
of
(around
1000)
radia4on
workers.
CISAM,
furthermore,
is
decomissiong
its
5
MW
research
nuclear
reactor.

9. forensic
radia4on
surveys
in
support
of
the
Judicial
Authority
(e.g.
orphan
sources)
environnmental
safety
in
general
and,
in
par4cular,
“field”
measurements
addressed
to
assess
the
radia4on
risk
in
military
training
areas
(polygons),
harbours
and
military
compunds
abroad.
Other
important
ac4vi4es
are:

10. Index
• Ionizing
radia4on
in
the
Military
• Health
Physics
at
CISAM
• Partnership
for
joint
projects

11. CISAM
has
partnerships
with
other
ins4tu4ons:
like
the
NATO
NBC
Centre
Of
Excellence
in
Vyskov
(Czech
Repubblic)
and
the
Engineering
Department
of
the
University
of
Pisa.
There
are
many
areas
of
poten4al
further
coopera4ons
as:
“RN
emergencies”,
“Ac#va#on
measurements”,
and
”Air
naviga#on”.

12. RN
emergencies
are
excep4onal
situa4ons
where
MoD
personnel
is
requested
in
support
of
civil
agencies
to
manage
disastrous
events
or
is
vic4m
of
hos4le
acts
involving
radioac4ve
material.
The
possibility
to
use
accelerators
for
this
ac4vity
could
be
therefore
inves4gated.
RN
emergency
response
The
laboratory
study
of
these
scenarios
would
require
the
simula4on
of
large
doses,
but
the
use
of
high
ac4vity
sources
poses
safety
and
regulatory
concerns.

13. Ac4va4on
is
the
process
in
which
neutron
radia4on
induces
radioac4vity
in
normally
stable
materials.
The
excited
nucleus
produced,
ogen
decays
immediately
by
emihng
gamma
rays,
that
can
be
used
for
easy
but
very
accurate
measurements.
This
technique
could
be
employed
to
perform
measurements
in
a
large
variety
of
samples,
some
of
them
also
of
military
interest
(e.g.
depleted
uranium
items).
The
problem
is
the
availability
of
high
ac4vity,
mul4
energy
neutron
sources.
It
could
be
interes4ng
to
evaluate
the
possible
use
of
par4cle
accelerators
technology
to
produce
neutron
beams
for
environmental
sample
ac4va4on
measurements.
Ac4va4on
measurements

14. Air
naviga4on
The
Italian
law,
in
implementa4on
of
the
EU
Direc4ve
96/29,
requires
strict
dose
monitoring
for
avia4on
workers
flying
at
high
al4tudes.
This
is
the
case
of
the
military
airplanes
and
so
dose
assessment
for
air
naviga4on
is
a
sector
of
interest
at
CISAM.
From
the
RPA
point
of
view,
the
main
concerns
are
the
high
energies
involved
and
the
variety
of
par4cles
produced
by
the
interac4on
of
cosmic
rays
both
with
the
atmosphere
and
the
airplanes
equipments.
These
are
radia4on
fields,
including
neutrons,
not
commonly
found
in
rou4ne
radia4on
surveys.
A
full
laboratory
study
would
require
both
theore4cal
and
experimental
work
with
high
energy
radia4on.
This
is
undoubtedly
another
area
to
inves4gate
for
possible
future
partnerships
involving
the
use
of
synchrotrons.

15. Thank
you
for
your
a7en,on.
raffaele.zagarella@esercito.difesa.it