Glossary - hdbk110697

DOE-HDBK-1106-97

GLOSSARY

Airborne Radioactive Material: Radioactive material in any chemical or physical form that is dissolved,

mixed, suspended, or otherwise entrained in air.

Annual Limit On Intake (ALI): The derived limit for the amount of radioactive material taken into the

body of an adult worker by inhalation or ingestion in a year. ALI is the smaller value of intake of a given

radionuclide in a year by the reference man (ICRP Publication 23) that would result in a committed

effective dose equivalent of 5 rems (0.05 sievert) or a committed dose equivalent of 50 rems (0.5 sievert)

to any individual organ or tissue. ALI values for intake by ingestion and inhalation of selected

radionuclides are based on Table 1 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Federal Guidance

Report No. 11, Limiting Values of Radionuclide Intake and Air Concentration and Dose Conversion

Factors for Inhalation, Submersion, and Ingestion, published September 1988. This document is available

from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA.

Becquerel (Bq): The SI unit for activity equivalent to 1 nuclear disintegration per second.

Beta Decay: Radioactive decay in which a beta particle is emitted. This transformation changes only the

atomic number of the nucleus, raising or lowering the atomic number (Z) by one for emission of a

negative or positive beta particle, respectively.

Beta Particle: Charged particle emitted from the nucleus during radioactive decay, having a mass and

charge equal to that of an electron.

Bioassay: The determination of kinds, quantities, or concentrations, and, in some cases, locations of

radioactive material in the human body, whether by direct measurement or by analysis, and evaluation of

radioactive materials excreted or removed from the human body.

Biological Half-Life: See Half-Life Biological.

Characteristic X-ray: X-rays that are characteristic of the element in which they are produced. Their

emission results from the rearrangement of electrons in the shells of excited atoms.