A universal radiation protection system based on individual standardised integrated doses.

A 'Universal Radiation Protection System' (URPS) is proposed in this paper with a novel philosophy, concept and methodology. It applies a 'Standardised Integrated Dose System' (SIDS) based on health risk limits for workers and public, no matter where they live in the world. The URPS assigns equal radiation health risk limit to an individual by integrating doses from national natural background (NBG) radiation and from man-made sources. For public, the SIDS integrates doses from planned exposure situations within a dose limit (e.g. 1 mSv y(-1)) on top of the mean national NBG dose in a country. For workers, the SIDS integrates within a dose limit (e.g. 20 mSv y(-1)) of occupational dose and doses from mean national NBG and from planned exposure situations as a member of public within the public dose limit. A panorama overview and the rationale in support of the URPS are presented and discussed with a hope to ignite further thoughts and ideas towards establishing the URPS for universal use.