Michael here. I work outages as a contracting RP tech.

A lot of the information we chase between assignments is scattered: test and procedure material in one place, job and outage information in another, housing somewhere else, and useful plant tips buried in group threads.

I started The Grid because I wanted a practical nuclear-worker community that kept those things easier to find.

For RP/HP folks and people looking at commercial nuclear, the free side includes:

- classroom resources, tests, procedures, and tips

- jobs, outages, and plant information

- housing and road-work discussion

- a place to ask other nuclear workers practical questions

I know Health Physics is much broader than outage work, so this will be most relevant to people considering commercial nuclear, RP tech work, or traveling assignments.

If that fits you, the free community is here:

https://www.skool.com/thegrid/about

Hi all! I’m about to start my masters in Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University’s online program. My bachelors is in Industrial Hygiene (basically Occupational Health and Safety with a focus on assessing employees exposure to hazards such as noise, chemicals, radiation, ergonomics, etc). I have worked FT for two years as a Safety Engineer in the Aerospace industry.

I’m concerned that once I obtain my masters, no jobs will want to hire me because I won’t have hands on experience with Health Physics. There are limited HP positions where I live, and I don’t get involved in projects with our site RSO.

How risky would it be if I didn’t do hands on HP while in school? Would I be successful entering the field with my masters degree and no experience? Not sure what to do.

I’d love your thoughts! Thank you :)

Hi everyone,

I have some concerns about the radiation dose I received from the CT scan (abdomen and pelvis with contrast I) I just had at University College London Hospital (Grafton Way Building) in London, UK. If this is not the right section, please feel free to move it.

I've been having constant pain in lower right hand side stomach and soft stools for about 2 months. The GP did blood and stool tests and they came back normal. I saw a Gastroenterologist few weeks back and he recommend a Colonoscopy and a CT scan.

I was nervous about having a CT scan as I had read that it uses a lot more radiation than an X ray and increases the cancer risk slightly. Also my mum died of lung cancer so I'm conscious about radiation and other carcinogens. I did some research before the scan and found that a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis with contrast iv can have 10-15mSv on average and this is equivalent to about 5 years of background radiation in one go.

Before the scan I asked one of the radiographers (there were 2 in the room) how much radiation I can expect and he said they can tell me afterwards.

After the scan I was told the number was 151. When I heard that naturally I was extremely worried. I questioned why it was so high and everything I read pointed to 10-15 mSv on average. Then the other radiographer also came out and told me there's nothing to worry about and this is a very low dose. I was thinking no it's not, it's 10 times the radiation I was supposed to receive. When I told her about the average I had read on many reputable sources, she said I shouldn't worry about what's on Google and they (the radiographers) are the experts. She also said the radiation I received is equivalent to radiation from one flight (which I don't think is correct) and the average number I quoted didn't make sense to her. She said some patients receive 950 for some CT scans.

I saw that it was a Siemens scanner. She said the machine isn't old (I asked how old and she said about 8 years but I don't know if it's accurate). She said they set the parameters and the machine works out the radiation.

She asked me to contact the Medical physicist (and also the society of radiographers) of I have more concerns.

I'm sure they try to minimise the radiation dose but what she told me contradicts what I found online. The UK government's website shows the radiation from CT of abdomen and pelvis to be about 10mSv.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/medical-radiation-patient-doses/patient-dose-information-guidance

Can you guys please make any sense of this? Is it possible they were reading the radiation dose number after the scan wrong? (when they said 151 maybe it's meant to be 15.1? ). Is it even possible to get such a high dose (if it is indeed 151 msv) from this scan? Perhaps the CT scanner is old? Perhaps they didn't set the parameters correctly?

I'm now extremely worried that I got a huge amount of radiation in one hit :( I'd there anything I can do to minimise the cancer risk? We just had a newborn so I've been getting very little sleep (like 2 hours a night). Is this bad?

Thanks in advance

graduated from xray school last year (associates degree from pima) and currently working as a ct tech, but lately i’ve been interested in a career in health physics. i’ve always been a bit of a nerd for all things nuclear, and after getting burnt out at a high volume hospital, i’m thinking of going back to school for my bachelors in radiation protection/health physics (looking specifically at TESU’s online program).

anybody have any insight on how that transition would work? or thoughts on how i could go about this better? any specific positions i should be looking into and what the work would look like? any input regarding the industry would help

at the moment i’m pretty fascinated at the thought of working at a nuclear power plant, nuclear waste facility, or possibly even fermilab, but i’m sure i’d also be fine with working medically in oncology or with siemens healthineers or similar given my background. i’m sure there are also many other places that i’m just unaware of, so please drop any recommendations in the comments. just going through this subreddit makes me realize HP’s are needed in a lot more places than i initially thought lol

I’m on the cusp of graduating, and looking forward to beginning my journey towards the health physics field in a national lab. I’ve noticed several articles around where the talks of implementing SMRs for data centers keeps getting brought up, but I haven’t seen anything definitive yet…so since I haven’t had the chance to understand the workforce culture of HP and have no clue how to imagine the effects on the field.

Does anyone with knowledge/experience have any predictions on any future effects? More SMRs = increase in demand for physicists and specialists? Or do you think it won’t be such an impact?

I appreciate any feedback or insight!

It’s somewhat controversial (and I don’t even like non-ionizing cellphone radiation), but the evidence for harmful effects from low-dose radiation doesn’t seem to be very well supported.

Video overview: https://youtu.be/edGRStpFWwI

Original article: https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-to-lie-about-radiation/

Hi everyone,
I’ve been struggling mentally since I found out the radiation dose from my coronary CT angiography. I specifically chose this clinic because they advertised having one of the latest Siemens scanners, so I never expected to receive such a high dose.
After requesting the technical report, I saw that my total DLP was 1427 mGy·cm, which really shocked me. One cardiologist even told me it was much higher than what he would normally expect. Another radiologist said the risk is probably not as high as I think, but I’m finding it very difficult to believe that.
I’m 42 years old and I honestly feel like I’ve significantly increased my chances of developing cancer. I’ve barely slept for days and my anxiety has gone through the roof.
I’m not asking anyone to tell me I’ll be fine. I just want honest opinions from people who understand radiation. Is a dose like this considered unusually high for coronary CT angiography? Am I overestimating what this means for my future cancer risk?
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to reply.

Hi all, I'm shooting to take part 2 of the ABMP health physics exam in the fall. I have the whole list of recommended references from board itself, but I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on more targeted resources (rather than just the entirety of bushberg) or general advice on how to focus my review. I used a lot of ABR resources for part 1, but at this point the content does diverge pretty significantly.

Thank you!

HP posting at the National Institutes of Health

Hey folks,

I'm looking for a roommate to split lodging in the DC area for the nights of July 3rd–5th. I'm a physics grad student (about to leave with my Master's this summer), and a friend of mine is attending the Health Physics Society meeting, so we're planning to spend the pre-conference weekend in the area.

The snag is that DC is heavily booked over the 4th of July, so I'm hoping to find someone with a room (or still searching for a room) who has an extra bed for those nights. I would cover my share of the cost.

If that's you, or you know someone, please DM me. Happy to tell you more about myself and make plans once you message.

I took Part I yesterday and got a printout from the test center with ABHP/AAHP letterhead saying I passed based on preliminary computer analysis. Is this new this year? The first time I attempted it I didn’t get my result until August.

Hi all,

I am going to graduate with my Bachelor's in Nuclear Engineering here in just under a year. I have also been working in nuclear manufacturing the entire time I have been in school as a manufacturing technician. Edit: To be specific, in F-18 FDG manufacturing with a cyclotron. As I approach the end of my degree, I realize that I think I want to go into health physics. My favorite part of the degree was always everything related to radiation, while very little of my interests have actually aligned with things like reactor ops or core design...

So, that being said, I have two questions if you could all give me some insight into what my future may hold if I pursue this:

1. Is my experience working in a nuclear manufacturing lab relevant to being a health physicist? We did simple health physics things like detector constancies, linearities, and MCA calibration, in addition to just outright using radiation shielding and ALARA principles, but nothing super in depth, I think. Still, I am hopeful this will help me get a job.

2. Do you need to go to graduate school to get into the field and succeed? My GPA is kind of mediocre at a 2.9 due to a bunch of F's from my freshman year I can't replace. I think it would be very expensive and very difficult for me to do grad school, and I just want to get into the field.

TLDR; Is nuclear manufacturing experience relevant, and do I need to do grad school before even considering looking for a health physics job?

Olá, estou cursando licenciatura em física e estava pensando em ir para a área de Física Médica fazendo uma residência depois de concluir a faculdade. Eu pesquisei algumas residências e uma delas foi a do Sírio Libanês, eu queria saber se alguém sabe se é muito difícil de passar, principalmente pela questão da avaliação de currículo, ou se alguém teria alguma dica para eu seguir nessa área, eu pensei em mudar para bacharelado, mas não sei se faria muita diferença (a minha grade é muita parecida com a do bacharelado)

So I passed the NRRPT exam and got the certification.

Now they want me to fork over a "sustaining fee" every year. My question is why?

I'm not looking to change jobs right now.

My employer doesn't pay any extra for having NRRPT.

Honestly seems like a waste of money.

When I graduated college I received a diploma. I don't have to keep paying a fee to keep that diploma valid.

I dont understand why a certification like NRRPT is any different. What exactly are they doing for me to deserve this annual fee? Seems like a scam.

Hi everyone,
I’m currently a postdoctoral scholar at a national lab with a background in experimental nuclear physics. Over the course of my research, some of my work has overlapped with topics related to health physics, and that gradually sparked my interest in the field.
Lately, I’ve been seriously reconsidering my long-term career path. When I started my PhD, my goal was to stay in academia, continue doing research, and eventually pursue a faculty position. However, over the years that ambition has faded for several reasons.
In experimental nuclear physics, it’s common to spend many years in postdoctoral positions before landing a faculty role. Many people spend close to a decade after their PhD in temporary positions, often moving frequently and sacrificing a lot of personal stability. Even after securing a faculty job, the pressure to obtain tenure, continuously publish, secure funding, and stay competitive can be overwhelming.
At this point, I also feel stuck in my current position. I’m not learning many new skills anymore, and I don’t see much upward trajectory in my current path. I still enjoy technical and scientific work, but I’m no longer sure that the academic route is what I want for my life.
Because of this, I’ve started looking more seriously into health physics as a potential career transition. I’m curious whether others here have made a similar moves from NP to being a HP.

Is anybody found a MRI noise canceling headset and tested it? We've been looking for additional information about it and what I've seen so far are a few companies offering MRI stereo headsets that block noise up to a certain decibel but they are passively blocking noise, not using noise canceling technology. I don't know if anyone sells a noise canceling MRI headset as I'm not finding this, so, I figured I would ask here on reddit. Hopefully someone have insights, thank you!

What do people use to look up basic info about isotopes? Rad decay isn't always complete but the IAEA app has WAY too much info to sift through. Is there a happy medium that's useful for a newer hp tech?

A little background about myself, I graduated with a bachelors in Nuclear Engineering and have been working at a radiopharmaceutical company. I was a radiation safety technician for about 2 years and recently got promoted to associate health physicist. I eventually want to take the CHP but I was wondering if also pursing a masters in health physics would be worthwhile.

So here is my question I read that there are methods in which MSV dose can be reduced so much without compromising the quality of ct images and that is done through a combination of reconstruction software with filtrations which are placed in the modern day scans. I wonder can I do chest CT and avoid the standard 7 msv even LDCT doesnt cut the msv enough for me. I read about certain protocols done in MRI that can make it as accurate as CT for chest imaging but I can’t find a facility that utilizes these protocols.