ABSTRACT
Any work with radioactive materials or ionizing radiation needs to be assessed to demonstrate that the radiation exposures of workers and members of the public are as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP). This process, known as safety assessment, considers all the potential risks associated with the work activity (identified by appropriate risk assessments) and then addresses the wider issue of managing the risks so as to ensure the optimum ALARP result. In practice this distinction between safety assessment and risk assessment is most important for large, complex facilities such as nuclear reactors, where there are numerous sources of risk, requiring a detailed, comprehensive safety management approach. For many small users who only deal with one or a very few sources of radiation, the distinction is less important because the safety management needed is relatively straightforward.
