Reassessment of radiation exposures of underground non-uranium mine workers in Western Australia

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com. In the 1990, radon and radon progeny was reported to contribute approximately 70% of the average 1.4 + 1.0-mSv annual dose across 26 Western Australian underground non-uranium mines. The Western Australian underground mining workforce has expanded significantly, and parameters used to calculate doses have changed significantly, warranting a review of the 1990's data. The review concludes that doses received by the contemporary mining workforce has increased on average, by 5.4%, with annual dose estimates ranging from 0.53 to 3.56 mSv, with a mean of 1.33 mSv. Doses in 12 of the 23 underground mines exceed 1 mSv and are required to comply with radiation safety legislation. It is estimated that 5400 underground workers will fall into the greater than 1-mSv category. The collective dose to the underground worker population has increased by 4.5 times from 3060 man mSv (2173 workers) to 13 669 man mSv (8597 workers).

RAS ID

32340

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

2020

Volume

191

Issue

3

PubMed ID

33095242

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

Copyright

subscription content

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Comments

Ralph, M. I., Hinckley, S., & Cattani, M. (2020). Reassessment of radiation exposures of underground non-uranium mine workers in Western Australia. Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 191(3), 272-287. https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncaa131

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1093/rpd/ncaa131