Occupational Radiation Exposure in New Zealand

An analysis is described of occupational exposures in New Zealand based on doses reported by the National Radiation Laboratory personal monitoring service for the two years 1984 and 1985. Weibull plots were used to estimate mean doses for each occupational classification and to determine the contributions from doses below the minimum reporting level. The estimated collective effective dose equivalent from occupational exposure of 1.56 man-Sv was only about 0.03% of the collective dose to the population from natural radiation and about half the collective dose from enhanced cosmic radiation exposure received by New Zealand aircrew. As a group, industrial radiographers receive the highest average cumulated doses, although in any one year the collective dose to the group is very dependent on the volume of large scale industrial development.