Glossary cont'd - doe-hdbk-1106-97

DOE-HDBK-1106-97

GLOSSARY (continued)

Uptake: Quantity of a radionuclide taken up by the systemic circulation, e.g., by injection into the

blood, by absorption from compartments in the respiratory or gastrointestinal tracts, or by

absorption through the skin or through wounds in the skin.

Weighting Factor: The fraction of the overall health risk, resulting from uniform, whole body

irradiation, attributable to specific tissue (T). The dose equivalent to tissue, T, is multiplied by the

appropriate weighting factor to obtain the effective dose equivalent to that tissue.

Whole-Body Counter: A device used to identify and measure the radiation in the body (body

burden) of human beings and animals; it uses heavy shielding to keep out background radiation

and ultrasensitive scintillation detectors and electronic equipment.

Whole-Body Counting: A technique to determine the internally deposited radionuclides within

the body by measuring with an external radiation detector the photons emitted. Results are

generally expressed in the form of percent of the ALI for the nuclides in question. This technique

can identify and measure accurately normal body radiations as well as those that are taken into

the body due to such things as injection, ingestion, and inhalation from atmospheric releases,

medical diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, etc.

Whole Body Dose Equivalent: The dose equivalent that results when the whole body is irradiated

and taken, when the irradiation is uniform, as equivalent to the effective dose equivalent.

X-rays: Penetrating electromagnetic radiation having wavelengths shorter than those of visible

light, usually produced by bombardment of a metallic target with fast electrons in a high vacuum.

In nuclear reactions, it is customary to refer to photons originating in the nucleus as gamma rays,

and those originating in the extra nuclear part of the atom as X-rays.