Radiation Protection Careers Guidance

This career guidance series is written by Mark Ramsay, a Radiation Protection Adviser (RPA) for many organisations through Ionactive Consulting. We aim to provide you with some basic information about a career in radiation protection and how you obtain experience and qualifications in this area of work. This series is aimed at anyone with a general interest in radiation protection, but will be particularly useful for those still at university, or perhaps those that are considering a career change. There is a lot of useful information on the web and we will use this series to point you towards that resource.

Part 1 of our guide starts by considering what a career in radiation protection really means. We consider that radiation protection spans medical physics to health physics and more, and encompasses a variety of fields including radiation dosimetry, health physics monitoring, instrumentation, safety assessment and much more.

In part 2 of our guide we consider where radiation protection is 'practiced' in the UK. We then look at the key legislation and regulators which together define the role of the Radiation Protection Adviser.

In part 3 of our guide we consider where the term 'Radiation Protection Adviser' is defined and by whom. We then take a brief look at the 'HSE Statement on Radiation Protection Advisers' and provide further links for those who want to look further. Finally we introduce the assessing bodies who are currently authorised by the HSE to assess competence.