Radiographic Testing - Level I

Radiographic Equipment Operating and Emergency Instructions Course

Note: It is recommended that the trainee receive instruction in this course prior to performing work in radiography.

1.0        Personnel Monitoring

1.1        Wearing of monitoring badges

1.2        Reading of pocket dosimeters

1.3        Recording of daily dosimeter readings

1.4        “Off-scale” dosimeter — action required

1.5        Permissible exposure limits

2.0        Survey Instruments

2.1        Types of radiation instruments

2.2        Reading and interpreting meter indications

2.3        Calibration frequency

2.4        Calibration expiration — action

2.5        Battery check — importance

3.0        Leak Testing of Sealed Radioactive Sources

3.1        Requirements for leak testing

3.2        Purpose of leak testing

3.3        Performance of leak testing

4.0        Radiation Survey Reports

4.1        Requirements for completion

4.2        Description of report format

5.0        Radiographic Work Practices

5.1        Establishment of restricted areas

5.2        Posting and surveillance of restricted areas

5.3        Use of time, distance and shielding to reduce personnel radiation exposure

5.4        Applicable regulatory requirements for surveys, posting and control of radiation and high-radiation areas

6.0        Exposure Devices

6.1        Daily inspection and maintenance

6.2*      Radiation exposure limits for gamma ray exposure devices

6.3        Labeling

6.4        Use

6.5        Use of collimators to reduce personnel exposure

6.6*      Use of “source changers” for gamma ray sources

7.0        Emergency Procedures

7.1*      Vehicle accidents with radioactive sealed sources

7.2*      Fire involving sealed sources

7.3*      “Source out” — failure to return to safe shielded conditions

7.4*      Emergency call list

8.0        Storage and Shipment of Exposed Devices and Sources

8.1*      Vehicle storage

8.2*      Storage vault — permanent

8.3*      Shipping instructions — sources

8.4*      Receiving instructions — radioactive material

9.0        State and Federal Regulations

9.1        Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and agreement states authority

9.2        License reciprocity

9.3*      Radioactive materials license requirements for industrial radiography

9.4        Qualification requirements for radiography personnel

9.5        Regulations for the control of radiation (state or NRC as applicable)

9.6*      Department of Transportation regulations for radiographic-source shipment

9.7        Regulatory requirements for X-ray machines (state and federal as applicable)

* Topics may be deleted if the radiography is limited to X-ray exposure devices.

Total recommended hours of instruction for this course:  5 hours

Basic Radiographic Physics Course

1.0        Introduction

1.1        History and discovery of radioactive materials

1.2        Definition of industrial radiography

1.3        Radiation protection — why?

1.4        Basic math review: exponents, square root, etc.

2.0        Fundamental Properties of Matter

2.1        Elements and atoms

2.2        Molecules and compounds

            2.3        Atomic particles — properties of protons, electrons and neutrons

2.4        Atomic structure

2.5        Atomic number and weight

2.6        Isotope versus radioisotope

3.0        Radioactive Materials

3.1        Production

3.1.1     Neutron activation

3.1.2     Nuclear fission

3.2        Stable versus unstable (radioactive) atoms

3.3        Curie — the unit of activity

3.4        Half-life of radioactive materials

3.5        Plotting of radioactive decay

3.6        Specific activity — curies/gram

4.0        Types of Radiation

4.1        Particulate radiation — properties: alpha, beta, neutron

4.2        Electromagnetic radiation — X-ray, gamma ray

4.3        X-ray production

4.4        Gamma ray production

4.6        Gamma ray energy

4.7        Energy characteristics of common radioisotope sources

4.8        Energy characteristics of X-ray machines

5.0        Interaction of Radiation with Matter

5.1        Ionization

5.2        Radiation interaction with matter

5.2.1     Photoelectric effect

5.2.2     Compton scattering

5.2.3     Pair production

5.3        Unit of radiation exposure — the roentgen

5.4        Emissivity of commonly used radiographic sources

5.5        Emissivity of X-ray exposure devices

5.6        Attenuation of electromagnetic radiation — shielding

5.7        Half-value layers; tenth-value layers

5.8        Inverse square law

6.0        Biological Effects of Radiation

6.1        “Natural” background radiation

6.2        Unit of radiation dose — rem

6.3        Difference between radiation and contamination

6.4        Allowable personnel exposure limits and the banking concept

6.5        Theory of allowable dose

6.6        Radiation damage — repair concept

6.7        Symptoms of radiation injury

6.8        Acute radiation exposure and somatic injury

6.9        Personnel monitoring for tracking exposure

6.10      Organ radiosensitivity

7.0        Radiation Detection

7.1        Pocket dosimeter

7.2        Difference between dose and dose rate

7.3        Survey instruments

7 3 1     Geiger Muller tube

7.3.2     Ionization chambers

7.3.3     Scintillation chambers, counters

7.4        Film badge — radiation detector

7.5        TLDs (thermoluminescent dosimeters)

7.6        Calibration

8.0        Exposure Devices and Radiation Sources

8.1        Radioisotope sources

8.1.1     Sealed-source design and fabrication

8.1.2     Gamma ray sources

8.1.3     Beta and bremsstrahlung sources

8.1.4     Neutron sources

8.2        Radioisotope exposure device characteristics

8.3        Electronic radiation sources — 500 keV and less, low energy

8.3.1     Generator — high voltage rectifiers

8.3.2     X-ray tube design and fabrication

8.3.3     X-ray control circuits

8.3.4     Accelerating potential

8.3.5     Target material and configuration

8.3.6     Heat dissipation

8.3.7     Duty cycle

8.3.8     Beam filtration

8.4*      Electronic radiation sources — medium and high energy

8.4.1*    Resonance transformer

8.4.2*    Van de Graaff accelerator

8.4.3*    Linac

8.4.4*    Betatron

8.4.5*    Roentgen output

8.4.6*    Equipment design and fabrication

8.4.7*    Beam filtration

8.5*      Fluoroscopic radiation sources

8.5.1*    Fluoroscopic equipment design

8.5.2*    Direct viewing screens

8.5.3*    Image amplification

8.5.4*    Special X-ray tube considerations and duty cycle

8.5.5*    Screen unsharpness

8.5.6*    Screen conversion efficiency

9.0        Special Radiographic Sources and Techniques

9.1*      Flash radiography

9.2*      Stereo radiography

9•3*      In-motion radiography

9•4*      Autoradiography

* Topics may be deleted if the employer does not use these methods and techniques.

Total hours of instruction for this course: 20 hours

Radiographic Technique Course

1.0        Introduction

1.1        Process of radiography

1.2        Types of electromagnetic radiation sources

1.3        Electromagnetic spectrum

1.4        Penetrating ability or “quality” of X-rays and gamma rays

1.5        Spectrum of X-ray tube source

1.6        Spectrum of gamma radioisotope source

1.7        X-ray tube — change of mA or kVp effect on “quality” and intensity

2.0        Basic Principles of Radiography

2.1        Geometric exposure principles

2.1.1     “Shadow” formation and distortion

2.1.2     Shadow enlargement calculation

2.1.3     Shadow sharpness

2.1.4     Geometric unsharpness

2.1.5     Finding discontinuity depth

2.2        Radiographic screens

2.2.1     Lead intensifying screens

2.2.2     Fluorescent intensifying screens

2.2.3     Intensifying factors

2.2.4     Importance of screen-to-film contact

2.2.5     Importance of screen cleanliness and care

2.2.6     Techniques for cleaning screens

2.3        Radiographic cassettes

2.4        Composition of industrial radiographic film

2.5        The “heel effect” with X-ray tubes

3.0        Radiographs

3.1        Formation of the latent image on film

3.2        Inherent unsharpness

3.3        Arithmetic of radiographic exposure

3.3.1     Milliamperage — distance-time relationship

3.3.2     Reciprocity law

3 3 3     Photographic density

3.3.4     X-ray exposure charts — material thickness, kV and exposure

3.3.5     Gamma ray exposure chart

3.3.6     Inverse square law considerations

3.3.7     Calculation of exposure time for gamma ray and X-ray sources

3.4        Characteristic Hurter and Driffield (H-D) curve

3.5        Film speed and class descriptions

3.6        Selection of film for particular purpose

4.0        Radiographic Image Quality

4.1        Radiographic sensitivity

4.2        Radiographic contrast

4.3        Film contrast

4.4        Subject contrast

4.5        Definition

4.6        Film graininess and screen mottle effects

4.7        Penetrameters or image quality indicators

5.0        Film Handling, Loading and Processing

5.1        Safe light and darkroom practices

5.2        Loading bench and cleanliness

5.3        Opening of film boxes and packets

5.4        Loading of film and sealing cassettes

5.5        Handling techniques for “green film”

5.6        Elements of manual film processing

6.0        Exposure Techniques - Radiography

6.1        Singlewall radiography

6.2        Doublewall radiography

6.2.1     Viewing two walls simultaneously

6.2.2     Offset doublewall exposure singlewall viewing

6.2.3     Elliptical techniques

6.3        Panoramic radiography

6.4.       Use of multiplefilm loading

6.5        Specimen configuration

7.0        Fluoroscopic Techniques

7.1        Dark adaptation and eye sensitivity

7.2        Special scattered radiation techniques

7.3        Personnel protection

7.4        Sensitivity

7.5        Limitations

7.6        Direct screen viewing

7.7        Indirect and remote screen viewing

Total hours of instruction for the course:  15 hours