Code of Maine Rules › 10 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES › 144 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - GENERAL › Chapter 220 - Rules Relating to Radiation Protection › Part A - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 144-220-A-2 - Definitions

Current through 2024-29, July 17, 2024
As used in this rule, these terms have the definitions set
					 forth below. Additional definitions used only in a certain part will be found
					 in that part.
Absorbed dose
means the energy imparted by
					 ionizing radiation per unit mass of irradiated material. The units of absorbed
					 dose are the Gray (Gy) and the rad.
Accelerator
means any machine capable of
					 accelerating electrons, protons, deuterons, or other charged particles in a
					 vacuum and of discharging the resultant particulate or other radiation into a
					 medium at energies usually in excess of 1 MeV.
Accelerator-produced material
means any
					 material made radioactive by a particle accelerator. (See Appendix B of Part
					 C.)
Act
means 22 MRS Ch.160.
Activity
means the rate of disintegration or
					 transformation or decay of radioactive material. The units of activity are the
					 becquerel (Bq) and the curie (Ci).
Added filtration
means any filtration which is
					 in addition to the inherent filtration.
Additional authorized use/storage site
(See
					 Field Station.)
Address of use
means the building or buildings
					 that are identified on the license and where radioactive material may be
					 received, prepared, used, or stored.
Adult
means an individual 18 or more years of
					 age.
Agency
means the Maine Department of Health
					 and Human Services.
Agreement state
means any state with which the
					 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
					 has entered into effective agreement under subsection 274b. of the Atomic
					 Energy Act of 1954, as amended.
Airborne radioactive material
means any
					 radioactive material dispersed in the air in the form of particulates, dusts,
					 fumes, mists, vapors, or gases.
Airborne radioactivity area
means a room,
					 enclosure, or area in which airborne radioactive materials exist in
					 concentrations:
(1) In excess of the
				  derived air concentrations (DACs) specified in Appendix B, Table I of Part D of
this rule
, or
(2) To such a degree that an individual
				  present in the area without respiratory protective equipment could exceed,
				  during the hours an individual is present in a week, an intake of 0.6 percent
				  of the annual limit on intake (ALI) or 12 DAC-hours.
Air-purifying respirator
means a respirator
					 with an air-purifying filter, cartridge, or canister that removes specific air
					 contaminants by passing ambient air through the air-purifying element.
Alert
means events may occur, are in progress,
					 or have occurred that could lead to a release of radioactive material but that
					 the release is not expected to require a response by offsite response
					 organizations to protect persons offsite.
Annual limit on intake
(ALI) means the derived
					 limit for the amount of radioactive material taken into the body of an adult
					 worker by inhalation or ingestion in a year. ALI is the smaller value of intake
					 of a given radionuclide in a year by the reference man that would result in a
					 committed effective dose equivalent of 0.05 Sv (5 rem) or a committed dose
					 equivalent of 0.5 Sv (50 rem) to any individual organ or tissue. ALI values for
					 intake by ingestion and by inhalation of selected radionuclides are given in
					 Table I, Columns 1 and 2, of Appendix B.
ANSI
means American National Standards
					 Institute.
Area of use
means a portion of an address of
					 use that has been set aside for the purpose of receiving, preparing, using, or
					 storing radioactive material.
As low as is reasonably achievable
(ALARA)
					 means making every reasonable effort to maintain exposures to radiation as far
					 below the dose limits in this ruleas is practical, consistent with the purpose
					 for which the licensed or registered activity is undertaken, taking into
					 account the state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to
					 state of technology, the economics of improvements in relation to benefits to
					 the public health and safety, and other societal and socioeconomic
					 considerations, and in relation to utilization of nuclear energy and licensed
					 or registered sources of radiation in the public interest.
Assigned Protection Factor (APF)
means the
					 expected workplace level of respiratory protection that would be provided by a
					 properly functioning respirator or a class of respirators to properly trained
					 and fitted users. Operationally, the inhaled concentration can be estimated by
					 dividing the ambient airborne concentration by the APF.
Atmosphere-supplying respirator
means a
					 respirator that supplies the respirator user with breathing air from a source
					 independent of the ambient atmosphere, and includes supplied-air respirators
					 (SARs) and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) units.
Atomic energy
means all forms of energy
					 released in the course of nuclear fission or nuclear transformation.
Background radiation
means radiation from
					 cosmic sources; naturally occurring radioactive materials, including radon,
					 except as a decay product of source or special nuclear material, and including
					 global fallout as it exists in the environment from the testing of nuclear
					 explosive devices or from past nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl that
					 contribute to background radiation and are not under control of the licensee.
					 Background radiation does not include sources of radiation from radioactive
					 materials regulated by the Agency.
Barrier
(See Protective barrier.)
Beam axis
means the axis of rotation of the
					 beam-limiting device.
Beam limiting device
means a field defining
					 collimator, integral to the therapeutic radiation machine, which provides a
					 means to restrict the dimensions of the useful beam.
Beam monitoring system
means a system designed
					 and installed in the radiation head to detect and measure the radiation present
					 in the useful beam.
Becquerel
(See Units of radioactivity.)
Bioassay
means the determination of kinds,
					 quantities or concentrations, and, in some cases, the locations of radioactive
					 material in the human body, whether by direct measurement, in vivo counting, or
					 by analysis and evaluation of materials excreted or removed from the human
					 body. For purposes of this rule, radio-bioassay is an equivalent term.
Brachytherapy
means a method of radiation
					 therapy in which sealed sources are utilized to deliver a radiation dose at a
					 distance of up to a few centimeters, by surface, intracavitary, or interstitial
					 application.
Byproduct Material
means:
(1). Any radioactive material except special
				  nuclear material yielded in or made radioactive by exposure to the radiation
				  incident to the process of producing or utilizing special nuclear material; and
(2). The tailings or wastes
				  produced by the extraction or concentration of uranium or thorium from any ore
				  processed primarily for its source material content.
Calendar quarter
means not less than 12
					 consecutive weeks or more than 14 consecutive weeks. The first calendar quarter
					 of each year shall begin in January and subsequent calendar quarters shall be
					 so arranged such that no day is included in more than one calendar quarter and
					 no day in any one year is omitted from inclusion within a calendar quarter. No
					 licensee or registrant shall change the method observed by him of determining
					 calendar quarters for purposes of this rule except at the beginning of a
					 year.
Calibration
means the determination of:
(1) The response or reading of an instrument
				  relative to a series of known radiation values over the range of the
				  instrument, or
(2) The strength of
				  a source of radiation relative to a standard.
CFR
means Code of Federal Regulations.
Changeable filters
, means any filter,
					 exclusive of inherent filtration, which can be removed from the useful beam
					 through any electronic, mechanical, or physical process.
Chelating agent
means amine polycarboxylic
					 acids, hydroxy-carboxylic acids, gluconic acid, and polycarboxylic
					 acids.
Class
means a classification scheme for
					 inhaled material according to its rate of clearance from the pulmonary region
					 of the lung. Materials are classified as D, W, or Y, which applies to a range
					 of clearance half-times: for Class D, Days, of fewer than 10 days, for Class W,
					 Weeks, from 10 to 100 days, and for Class Y, Years, of greater than 100 days.
					 For purposes of this rule, lung class and inhalation class are equivalent
					 terms.
Collective dose
means the sum of the
					 individual doses received in a given period of time by a specified population
					 from exposure to a specified source of radiation.
Commencement of construction
means any
					 clearing of land, excavation, or other substantial action that would adversely
					 affect the natural environment of a site but does not include changes desirable
					 for the temporary use of the land for public recreational uses, necessary
					 borings to determine site characteristics or other pre-construction monitoring
					 to establish background information related to the suitability of a site or to
					 the protection of environmental values.
Committed dose equivalent
(HT50) means the dose equivalent to organs or tissues of
					 reference (T) that will be received from an intake of radioactive material by
					 an individual during the 50-year period following the intake.
Committed effective dose equivalent
(CEDE)(HE,50) is the sum of the products of the
					 weighting factors applicable to each of the body organs or tissues that are
					 irradiated and the committed dose equivalent to each of these organs or tissues
					 (HE,50 =
					 SWTHT50).
Consortium
means an association of medical use
					 licensees and a positron emission tomography (PET) radionuclide production
					 facility in the same geographical area that jointly own or share in the
					 operation and maintenance cost of the PET radionuclide production facility that
					 produces PET radionuclides for use in producing radioactive drugs within the
					 consortium for noncommercial distributions among its associated members for
					 medical use. The PET radionuclide production facility within the consortium
					 must be located at an educational institution or federal facility or a medical
					 facility.
Constraint
(dose constraint) means a value
					 above which specified licensee actions are required.
Controlled area
means an area, outside of a
					 restricted area but inside the site boundary, access to which can be limited by
					 the licensee or registrant for any reason
Critical Group
means the group of individuals
					 reasonably expected to receive the greatest exposure to residual radioactivity
					 for any applicable set of circumstances.
Curie
(See Units of radioactivity.)
Cyclotron
means a type of particle accelerator
					 that is used for the production of radioactive material.
Cyclotron/PET Facility
means a facility
					 comprised of a cyclotron and a nuclear pharmacy that specializes in the
					 preparation of PET radiopharmaceuticals.
Declared pregnant woman
means a woman who has
					 voluntarily informed the licensee, in writing, of her pregnancy and the
					 estimated date of conception. The declaration remains in effect until the
					 declared pregnant woman withdraws the declaration in writing or is no longer
					 pregnant.
Decommission
means to remove (as a facility)
					 safely from service and reduce residual radioactivity to a level that permits
					 release of the property for unrestricted use and termination of the
					 license.
Dedicated check source
means a radioactive
					 source that is used to assure the constant operation of a radiation detection
					 or measurement device over several months or years.
Deep-dose equivalent
(Hd), which applies to external whole body exposure,
					 means the dose equivalent at a tissue depth of 1 centimeter (1000
					 mg/cm2).
Demand respirator
means an
					 atmosphere-supplying respirator that admits breathing air to the face piece
					 only when a negative pressure is created inside the face piece by
					 inhalation.
Dentist
means an individual duly registered
					 and licensed to practice dentistry or dental surgery or any branch thereof
					 under 32 MRSA §1084.
Depleted uranium
means the source material
					 uranium in which the isotope uranium-235 is less than 0.711 weight percent of
					 the total uranium present. Depleted uranium does not include special nuclear
					 material.
Derived air concentration
(DAC) means the
					 concentration of a given radionuclide in air which, if breathed by the
					 reference man for a working year of 2,000 hours under conditions of light work,
					 results in an intake of one ALI. For purposes of this rule, the condition of
					 light work is an inhalation rate of 1.2 cubic meters of air per hour for 2,000
					 hours in a year. DAC values are given in Table I, Column 3, of Appendix
					 B.
Derived air concentration-hour
(DAC-hour)
					 means the product of the concentration of radioactive material in air,
					 expressed as a fraction or multiple of the derived air concentration for each
					 radionuclide, and the time of exposure to that radionuclide, in hours. A
					 licensee or registrant may take 2,000 DAC-hours to represent one ALI,
					 equivalent to a committed effective dose equivalent of 0.05 Sv (5 rem).
Detector
(See Radiation detector.)
Discrete source
means a radionuclide that has
					 been processed so that its concentration within a material has been purposely
					 increased for use for commercial, medical, or research activities.
Disposable respirator
means a respirator for
					 which maintenance is not intended and that is designed to be discarded after
					 excessive breathing resistance, sorbent exhaustion, physical damage, or
					 end-of-service-life renders it unsuitable for use. Examples of this type of
					 respirator are a disposable half-mask respirator or a disposable escape-only
					 self-contained breathing apparatus.
Distinguishable from background
means that the
					 detectable concentration of a radionuclide is statistically different from the
					 background concentration of that radionuclide in the vicinity of the site or,
					 in the case of structures, in similar materials using adequate measurement
					 technology, survey, and statistical techniques.
Dose
is a generic term that means absorbed
					 dose, dose equivalent, effective dose equivalent, committed dose equivalent,
					 committed effective dose equivalent, or total effective dose equivalent as
					 defined in other definitions in this part. For purposes of this rule, radiation
					 dose is an equivalent term.
Dose commitment
means the total radiation dose
					 to a part of the body that will result from retention in the body of
					 radioactive material. For the purposes of estimating the dose commitment, it is
					 assumed that from the time of intake the period of exposure to retained
					 material will not exceed 50 years.
Dose equivalent (HT)
means the product of the absorbed dose in tissue, quality factor, and all other
					 necessary modifying factors at the location of interest. The units of dose
					 equivalent are the sievert (Sv) and the rem.
Dose limits
means the permissible upper bounds
					 of radiation doses established in accordance with this rule. For purposes of
					 this rule, limits is an equivalent term.
Dosimetry processor
means an individual or an
					 organization that processes and evaluates individual monitoring devices in
					 order to determine the radiation dose delivered to the monitoring
					 devices.
Effective dose equivalent
					 (HE)
means the sum of the products of the dose
					 equivalent to each organ or tissue (HT) and the
					 weighting factor (wT) applicable to each of the body
					 organs or tissues that are irradiated (HE =
					 [SIGMA]wTHT).
Effective kilogram
means:
(1) For the source material uranium in which
				  the uranium isotope uranium-235 is greater than 0.005 (0.5 weight percent) of
				  the total uranium present: 10,000 kilograms, and
(2) For any other source material: 20,000
				  kilograms.
Effective kilograms of special nuclear
					 material
means:
(1) For
				  plutonium and uranium-233 their weight in kilograms;
(2) For uranium with an enrichment in the
				  isotope U-235 of 0.01 (1%) and above, its element weight in kilograms
				  multiplied by the square of its enrichment expressed as a decimal weight
				  fraction; and
(3) For uranium with
				  an enrichment in the isotope U-235 below 0.01 (1%), by its element weight in
				  kilograms multiplied by 0.0001.
Embryo/fetus
means the developing human
					 organism from conception until the time of birth.
Entrance or access point
means any opening
					 through which an individual or extremity of an individual could gain access to
					 radiation areas or to licensed or registered radioactive materials. This
					 includes entry or exit portals of sufficient size to permit human entry,
					 irrespective of their intended use.
Explosive material
means any chemical
					 compound, mixture, or device, which produces a substantial instantaneous
					 release of gas and heat spontaneously or by contact with, sparks or
					 flame.
Exposure
means being exposed to ionizing
					 radiation or to radioactive material, or Exposure means the quotient of dQ by
					 dm where "dQ" is the absolute value of the total charge of the ions of one sign
					 produced in air when all the electrons (negatrons and positrons) liberated by
					 photons in a volume element of air having mass "dm" are completely stopped in
					 air. The units of exposure are the coulomb per kilogram (C/kg) and the roentgen
					 (R).
Exposure rate
means the
exposure
per unit of time, such as roentgen per minute
					 and milliroentgen per hour.
External dose
means that portion of the dose
					 equivalent received from any source of radiation outside the body.
Extremity
means hand, elbow, and arm below the
					 elbow; or foot, knee, and leg below the knee.
Facility
means the location at which one or
					 more devices are installed and/or located within one building, vehicle, or
					 under one roof and are under the same administrative control.
Field station
or site means a facility where
					 licensed or registered material may be stored or used and from which equipment
					 is dispatched. This includes an additional authorized use/storage site. The
					 term authorized use/storage site refers to those authorized use/storage
					 locations specifically named on a license or certificate of registration other
					 than:
(1) The main site specified on a
				  license or certificate of registration, or
(2) Other temporary job sites.
Filtering face piece (dust mask)
means a
					 negative pressure particulate respirator with a filter as an integral part of
					 the face piece or with the entire face piece composed of the filtering
					 medium.
Fit factor
means a quantitative estimate of
					 the fit of a particular respirator to a specific individual and typically
					 estimates the ratio of the concentration of a substance in ambient air to its
					 concentration inside the respirator when worn.
Fit Test
means the use of a protocol to
					 qualitatively or quantitatively evaluate the fit of a respirator on an
					 individual.
Former U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) or U.S.
					 Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensed facilities
means nuclear
					 reactors, nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, uranium enrichment plants, or
					 critical mass experimental facilities where AEC or NRC licenses have been
					 terminated.
Formula quantity
means strategic special
					 nuclear material in any combination in a quantity of 5000 grams or more
					 computed by the formula: grams = (grams contained U-235) + 2.5 (grams U-233 +
					 grams plutonium). This class of material is sometimes referred to as a Category
					 I quantity of material.
GED
means general educational
					 development.
Generally applicable environmental radiation
					 standards
means standards issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection
					 Agency (EPA) under the authority of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended,
					 that impose limits on radiation exposures or levels, or concentrations or
					 quantities of radioactive material, in the general environment outside the
					 boundaries of locations under the control of persons possessing or using
					 radioactive material.
Gray
(See Units of dose.)
Half value layer (HVL)
means the thickness of
					 a specified material which attenuates X-radiation or gamma radiation to an
					 extent such that the air kerma rate, exposure rate or absorbed dose rate is
					 reduced to one half of the value measured without the material at the same
					 point.
Hazardous waste
means those wastes designated
					 as hazardous by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations in 40 CFR
					 Part 261 .
Healing arts
means any discipline which
					 involves the diagnosis or treatment of individuals by a practitioner who is
					 licensed for that purpose by the State of Maine, and which discipline, prior to
					 the original effective date of this rule, included the intentional exposure of
					 individuals to sources of radiation for diagnosis or treatment
Helmet
means a rigid respiratory inlet
					 covering that also provides head protection against impact and
					 penetration.
High radiation area
means an area, accessible
					 to individuals, in which radiation levels from radiation sources external to
					 the body could result in an individual receiving a dose equivalent in excess of
					 0.1 rem (1 mSv) in one hour at 30 centimeters from the radiation source or 30
					 centimeters from any surface that the radiation penetrates.
Hood
means a respiratory inlet covering that
					 completely covers the head and neck and may also cover portions of the
					 shoulders and torso.
Human use
means the internal or external
					 administration of radiation or radioactive material to human beings.
HVL
(See Half-value layer.)
Individual
means any human being.
Individual monitoring
means the assessment
					 of:
(1) Dose equivalent
(a) By the use of individual monitoring
				  devices or
(b) By the use of survey
				  data; or