Operational Radiation Protection in High-Energy Physics Accelerators: Implementation of ALARA in Design and Operation of Accelerators

It used to happen often, to us accelerator radiation protection staff, to be asked by a new radiation worker: ?How much dose am I still allowed?? And we smiled looking at the shocked reaction to our answer: ?You are not allowed any dose?. Nowadays, also thanks to improved training programs, this kind of question has become less frequent, but it is still not always easy to convince workers that staying below the exposure limits is not sufficient. After all, radiation is still the only harmful agent for which this is true: for all other risks in everyday life, from road speed limits to concentration of hazardous chemicals in air and water, compliance to regulations is ensured by keeping below a certain value. It appears that a tendency is starting to develop to extend the radiation approach to other pollutants (1), but it will take some time before the new attitude makes it way into national legislations