A legal ceiling on dose from regulated practices. International recommendations set 20 mSv a year averaged over five years for workers, with no single year above 50 mSv, plus organ limits such as 20 mSv a year for the lens of the eye, and 1 mSv a year for the public. US rules use 5 rem a year for workers. Plants set lower administrative limits so that no one approaches the legal limit.
Legal dose limit is 5 rem but our admin level is 2, and you're at 1.7, so you're off the bowl work.
Administrative levels sit well below legal limits so that one mistake or unplanned job cannot put a worker over the regulatory line.
Also heard as
- annual dose limit
- regulatory dose limit
Related terms
Dose extension
Approval for a worker to exceed the plant's administrative dose level, still below the legal limit.
Burned out
Having used up one's allowed dose for the period, so a worker cannot do more radiological work.
ALARA
As low as reasonably achievable: the principle of keeping doses as low as practical, not just below limits.
Effective dose
A whole-body dose figure that adds up organ doses weighted by each tissue's sensitivity to radiation risk.