Unsealed radioisotopes
This course is intended for academic staff, general staff, postgraduate students and honours students who are required to work with unsealed radioisotopes.
For non staff and non students the payment of $550.00 can be made on our website (costs as of March 2025 onwards).
It is designed to provide participants with sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge to enable them to safely handle radioisotopes in a research environment.
All new unsealed radioisotope users at UWA are required to have attended and passed this course within the first year of using radioisotopes, preferably before they start such work.
The course satisfies the training requirements for a licence for unsealed radioactive substances (research) under the Radiation Safety Act 1975.
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Scope
You will learn:
- basic radiation physics
- properties of ionising radiations
- external and internal radiation hazards
- radiation detection and measurement
- safe working techniques
- decontamination and emergency procedures
- radioactive waste management
- general laboratory safety
- radioisotope laboratory design
- biological effects of ionising radiations
- radiation in perspective
- legal aspects of radiation usage
- radiation calculations
- laboratory previews
- course review.
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Radiation safety procedures at UWA
- Registration and licensing requirements
- Inspections of premises and equipment
- Advice and training of users
- Ten golden rules for radioisotope work
- Local working rules
- Approval of protocol applications
- Ordering of radioisotopes
- Routine wipe testing
- Personnel monitoring
- Urinalysis and thyroid monitoring
- Incident and accident investigation
- Radioactive waste disposal.
Immediately following the lectures, students must attend on a third day to complete the practical work and sit the course examination. A comprehensive set of course notes is provided before the course starts, and it is expected that attendees have read the notes before they attend.
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Course details
Duration
3 days.
Sixteen lectures and information sessions from radiation safety professionals over two days, followed by practical work and the course examination on day three.
Date
Next course Tuesday 15th July to Thursday 17th July 2025
9:00am - 5:00pm Tuesday and Wednesday; 9:00am - 3:00pm Thursday
Location
Lectures venue Physics room 2.17 and Laboratory Sessions venue TBA
Facilitator
Senior Physicist, Radiation Safety Officer
(+61 8 ) 6488 2307, UWA Health, Safety and Wellbeing OfficeCost
UWA staff and students: no charge, others: $550 + GST (from March 2025 onwards)
Please be advised that non-attendees who fail to give three days notice or produce a medical certificate will be charged the full amount.
Places
20 people