Health Physics

Worker maintaining inspection tools at workbench

Using experience, specialized services, and sophisticated computer-aided health physics tools to protect workers, the public, and the environment from harmful levels of radiation.

Our Global Team

Canada

Marcy Sanderson VP, Strategic Growth and Innovation

Our Global Team

United States

Jenna Gatto VP, Operations

Our Global Team

International

Shahrokh Zangeneh Chief Commercial Officer

Health Physics Overview

Health physics, and its closely associated activity of radiation protection, is the science of enabling people to benefit from the use of radioactive materials while protecting them and the environment from hazardous levels of radiation. It considers all aspects of exposure including exposure to external radiation and the potential for ingestion or inhalation. Health physicists are responsible for the design of shielding and containment, planning work, and estimating dose budgets. They then monitor levels of exposure and uptake using radiation detectors and the bioassay of collected samples.

People potentially exposed to radioactive environments are required to follow the principles of ALARA or ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Achievable or As Low As Reasonably Practicable) and health physicists are responsible for ensuring these principles are applied.

Our full-scope health physics and radiation protection services include shielding estimates, shielding design, dose budget calculations, monitoring, and bioassay. We also use our experience to advise on compliance with industry best practice or regulator expectations.

Why Our Health Physics Services?

Highly Qualified Teams

Certified health physicists and radiation and health physics professionals with extensive in-field experience lead our work in nuclear power, medical isotopes, containment, transportation, fuel fabrication, and waste management.
Industry Best Practice

Our subject matter experts remain up-to-date through their ongoing work on projects and through serving on a range of international and Canadian committees ensuring that our advice and proposed practices are always compliant.
Cost-Effective, High-Quality Solutions

Experience enables us to quickly develop shielding designs, efficiently apply the right models, and develop approaches to projects that minimize dose.
Wide Range of Applications

We have worked on a wide variety of projects including station operations, outages, waste management, transportation, and isotope production.
Part of a Bigger Picture

By integrating our health physics services with many other aspects of our business including licensing, regulatory affairs, safety assessment, waste management, and decommissioning we offer a one-stop shop for radiation protection.
Direct and Indirect

The services we offer include the assessment of dose resulting from both direct and indirect (e.g., skyshine) exposures and include the assessment of shielding for gamma, neutron, beta, and other radiation fields

Our Health Physics Technical Abilities

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Health Physics

In addition to being experienced users of radiation shielding codes, our team includes skilled users of the RESidual RADioactive (RESRAD) family of codes published by Argonne National Laboratory to calculate risk of exposure through different environmental pathways.

Since 2012, we have created a licensed internal dosimetry program for transuranics and have become the primary supplier of urine and fecal bioassay analysis services for Bruce Power. We have also developed an internal dose assessment program that meets CNSC requirements and inputs data directly to the National Dose Registry operated by Health Canada. Internal dose assessment is done by our trained personnel utilizing the Integrated Modules for Bioassay Analysis (IMBA) Professional Plus software, in alignment with what is recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).

We also use other software packages and a variety of analytical methods to analyze problems involving skyshine, streaming through port and ducts, scattering albedo from surfaces, radiation from extended sources such as ground contamination and airborne plumes of radioactive material, and generation of secondary radiation by the interaction of neutron and beta radiation in shielding materials.

In addition to using state-of-the art methods and computer codes to deliver services, personalized solutions are provided by our experienced team. Our industry-recognized experts have been involved in developing the latest standards pertaining to safety assessment and environmental management (i.e., the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) N288 and N292 standards).

Our niche areas of expertise include the following:

Shielding calculations (point-kernel approach) and assess shielding designs of nuclear facilities
Shielding analysis of potential design changes using the MCNP code to capture the irregular geometries involved
Calculating external dose to workers and the general public using custom-made spreadsheets
Assessing intakes from bioassay data and calculating internal dose using IMBA Professional Plus software
ALARA dose assessments
Safety Analysis Report (SAR) for Class I and II Nuclear facilities
Calculating radiation fields around nuclear facilities and contaminated sites
Estimate dose to workers and members of the public during normal and accidental/upset scenarios
Hazard assessment of nuclear facilities
Determining internal, external, and environmental radiation hazards
Pathway analysis for unconditional release of waste

Radiation Shielding Services

Our team is well versed in using computer-assisted software to perform radiation shielding and dose modeling in support of designing shields and source strength estimation from radiation measurements. These tools aim help to minimize exposure to individuals, in line with the As low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) principles.

The radiation shielding analysis software we use includes:

MicroShield® – A point-kernel shielding analysis package used throughout the nuclear industry to analyze shielding for gamma radiation in standard geometries
QAD-CGGP – A point kernel gamma radiation shielding analysis package that allows modeling of complex geometries using combinatorial geometry algorithms
Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport (MCNP) – An extremely versatile Monte Carlo software package that can be used to analyze shielding for both gamma and neutron radiations in complex geometries
ORIGEN – A computer code used to solve the equations of radioactive nuclide transmutation and calculate radiation source terms for use in shielding and dose rate calculations
MERCURAD – 3D simulation software for Dose Rate Calculation. The code can be used to develop various practical solutions including optimization of shielding design and work procedures

3d simulation of a radioactive materials storage facility

Heatmap of radioactive material containers where some are shown to be radiating

Radiation Protection

Our expertise in radiation protection (RP) allows our team to offer:

RP program documents to support design of nuclear facilities
Design engineers and reviewing of design packages
RP services e.g., to analyze the “fitness for purpose” of storing contaminated wastes and to demonstrate the safety of the waste storage operations
RP training materials for different categories of staff at nuclear facilities using the Systematic Approach to Training (SAT) process
Radiation surveys and dose recording

Worker performing testing within a containmination control area

Our Proven Experience

Quality Assurance & Technical Standards

CSA N288: Standards and Guidelines on Environmental Management of Nuclear Facilities
CSA N292: Standards on Radioactive Waste Management
CSA N294: Decommissioning of facilities containing nuclear substances