Treatment for Special Radionuclides

In my lifetime, the most significant man-made exposure was the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Constant monitoring of radionuclides is done at stations engineered by national laboratories and other scientists. I thought that for this blog post I'd start to write about 'special radionuclide' protection and how it's done. Since monitoring is not used for low energy beta emitters, less attention is paid to those who received 3H, 14C, 35S, 45Ca, and 63Ni exposure.

Whenever a scientist is working with a source of ionizing radiation, a dosimeter is used to keep track of the dose that individual receives. Badges issued provide an estimated 'whole-body' reading and are placed outside of any apron or coat for useful modeling of the cranium. Noble gas monitoring networks are also very useful for detecting harmful radionuclides.

What's most impressive to me is the order of collaboration required to take care of ~100 international nuclear monitoring stations. Some of these are seismic stations for explosions while others contain radioxenon testing equipment. With the advent of antineutrino mapping, global oversight and ownership are made easier and more prevalent.

Most care is taken to ensure that water supplies aren't tarnished with nasty nuclear process byproducts. Compliance measures are swift and abundant. This is also the case for medical physics, wherein smaller and smaller amounts of radiation are being used to treat patients as time goes on. Regulation of materials and treatments is also important.

References
http://www.ctbto.org/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/ISS_Publication/Radionuclide_23-28.pdf
http://www.gvsu.edu/radsafety/personal-monitoring-7.htm