ISEMIR-IR: Industrial Radiography

It is a web-based system for regular data collection and analysis of occupational doses for individuals working in industrial radiography. This information is then used to improve occupational radiation protection of workers. The tool helps IR facilities to benchmark their arrangements in radiation protection and safety. ISEMIR-IC is a similar tool for interventional cardiology facilities to use in their implementation of optimization of occupational radiation protection.

Industrial radiography work by its nature is often carried out under difficult working conditions, such as in confined spaces or extreme cold or heat or working at night. Working under such adverse conditions might result in operational situations in which occupational radiation protection may be compromised. Experience shows that incidents involving IR sources have sometimes resulted in high doses to workers, causing severe health consequences such as radiation burns and, in a few cases, death. It is of utmost importance to have a mechanism to ensure sharing and exchanging knowledge and experience for improving occupational radiation protection in industrial radiography.

ISEMIR-IR aims at

• facilitating the implementation of ALARA practices and effective exposure management;
• providing efficient collection and maintenance of data on occupational exposure, radiation practices and incidents;
• allowing non-destructive testing (NDT) companies to benchmark their own facility and individual radiographers’ performances against global or regional data to define follow-up actions to address identified gaps and disseminate lessons learnt; and 
• contributing to minimizing the likelihood of accidents, e.g. by identifying pre-cursors, user feedback and experience.

Benefits of participating in ISEMIR-IR

Participation is free of charge and many parts of the data entry are voluntary so that the collected information is accessible to all interested parties. Each participating NDT company can provide annual information about the company, sources used, company procedures, training related to radiation protection, and individual industrial radiographers in the company. As a resuilt, NDT companies can assess the effectiveness of the optimization of radiation protection. The metric is determined by occupational dose per radiographic exposure for a given industrial radiographer.

The database supports three broad types of analyses:

• occupational doses per radiographic exposure for a given industrial radiographer as a function of personnel and facility attributes;
• benchmarking; and
• trends with time (per radiographic exposure over successive years).

With the help of ISEMIR-IR, NDT facilities can benchmark their own company's and individual personnel's performances against global or regional data. They can also identify areas for improvement and corrective actions that should lead to an improvement in radiation protection.