NCRP 164 PDF

The objective of this Report is to review the current state-of-knowledge of uncertainties in internal dose assessments, including uncertainties in the measurements that are used to perform these assessments. In a previously published report (NCRP, 2007), the current state-of-knowledge of uncertainties in external radiation measurements and dosimetry was reviewed. The scope of this Report is limited to internal radiation exposure. It is intended to be used primarily by radiation dosimetrists, including health physicists, radiation protection professionals, and medical physicists who need to evaluate of the uncertainties in estimates of absorbed doses. The scope of application ranges from the improvement of routine dosimetry procedures to the reconstruction of individual doses in epidemiological studies to treatment planning for therapeutic nuclear medicine. Sections 1 to 4 are descriptive in nature and do not present a high level of technical difficulty and so may provide useful knowledge to health physicists, radiation protection professionals, and medical physicists who are involved in the assessment of doses from internal sources of radiation. Sections 5 to 10 are more technical and address issues of interest to health physicists involved in the assessment of uncertainties. The appendices, in which details of various methods and models are presented, are meant to be read by those scientists interested in a particular issue.