ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a formal discussion of the types of radiation that an operating reactor can produce as well as how human beings can be protected from this radiation. Shielding human beings from this radiation is sometimes called radiation protection. Radiation shields can come in a variety of sizes and shapes, and they can be constructed from many different materials ranging from light elements such as aluminum to heavier materials such as concrete, steel, and lead. Radiation shields also affect the design of a nuclear power plant itself as well as the way that the fuel rods are stored after they have been burned. For a planar of spherical shield, the definitions for the half-value layer and the one-tenth value layer can still be applied without change as long as one is far enough away from the source that the photons from the source are all travelling in essentially the same direction.
