Radiation user’s organization
The extent of the radiation user’s organization and the organization description are essentially dependent on the nature and extent of the use of radiation. In simple circumstances, it is sufficient to appoint a radiation safety officer and describe his or her duties.
When use of radiation is subject to a safety licence, the responsible party must establish an organization for the use of radiation and enclose an organization description with the safety licence application.
The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority has issued instructions on the radiation user’s organization and its related positions and duties in Guide ST 1.4. In accordance with the guide, the requirements for the organization are dependent on the categories of radiation practices (the categories are presented in Appendix B of Guide ST 1.4).
Extensive operations set more requirements for the radiation user’s organization and its personnel and require a more detailed description of the organization, its personnel and duties. The additional requirements may include appointing a substitute for the radiation safety officer. The substitute is subject to the same qualification requirements as the radiation safety officer. When the operations are not extensive, it may be sufficient to appoint a radiation safety officer and describe his or her duties.
If a new radiation safety officer is appointed or if the duties listed in the organization description change, STUK must be notified within two weeks of when the change becomes effective.
Special expertise
In the medical use of radiation, a medical physics expert must be appointed for the purpose of radiation protection of examined and treated patients. Such practices include radiotherapy, nuclear medicine practices and CT scans, interventional radiology and cardiology examinations in X-ray practices.
In small-scale X-ray practices (for example in a small health centre), medical physics expertise is mainly needed for issuing statements or providing advice when starting or materially changing the operations. In this case, the organization description must present the procedures for utilizing medical physics expertise.
For especially demanding use of radiation, it may be necessary to appoint a qualified expert in addition to a radiation safety officer, or to establish a separate radiation protection unit for arranging radiation protection of workers and members of the public from exposure to radiation. If necessary, such requirements are specified in the safety licence. The responsible party must define the duties of the qualified expert and the radiation protection unit in writing.
More detailed instructions on the radiation user’s organization, radiation safety officer and other positions as well as on the necessary experts, their duties and qualifications are presented in Guides ST 1.4 and ST 1.8.