KA2 Topic 2.1 Study Guide — Radiation Protection Principles, Application and Risk
Table of Contents
1. Expected learning goals
1.1. LO 2.1.1 — Local legislation, implementation and governance
1.1.1. E 2.1.1a — Relate local implementation to national and international sources
- Name the principal international, Australian, Queensland and local documents.
- Classify each source by authority rather than presenting one undifferentiated chain.
- Trace at least one practice from principle through law/licence condition to RSPP control and retained record.
- Explain the key recommendations or requirements of each source at the level relevant to radiation therapy.
1.1.2. E 2.1.1b — Explain where and how risk is communicated
- Describe communication through the RSPP, controlled procedures, training, RSO reports, RSC/RSWG minutes, incident systems, monitor reports and patient consent/counselling.
- Tailor content to the audience and distinguish legal notification, internal escalation, clinical disclosure and education.
- Communicate dose, consequence, uncertainty and proposed action without equating a detectable dose with harm.
1.1.3. E 2.1.1c — Explain protection concepts and organisational roles
- Explain risk–benefit analysis, justification, optimisation/ALARA, limitation, authorisation and source/control systems.
- State the statutory role of the RSO and the local governance roles of the RSC and RSWG.
- Explain why assigning tasks does not remove the possession licensee's or individual user's duties.
1.2. LO 2.1.2 — Protection methods
1.2.1. E 2.1.2a — Evaluate risk of radiation-induced damage during treatment
- Identify who or what is exposed, the radiation pathway, dose quantity, spatial/temporal pattern, biological endpoint and uncertainty.
- Distinguish expected therapeutic tissue effects from unintended normal-tissue exposure and stochastic risk.
- Recognise scenarios needing specialist assessment, including pregnancy, prior irradiation, implanted electronic devices and non-target dose.
1.2.2. E 2.1.2b — Protect patients, workers, public and environment
- Select controls according to exposure category and hazard: elimination/substitution where possible, design/engineering, administrative controls, monitoring and PPE.
- Apply time, distance and shielding within a broader defence-in-depth system.
- Explain how patient protection differs from worker/public dose limitation.
1.2.3. E 2.1.2c — Use personal monitoring and respond to results
- Explain why monitoring is used, who needs it, how devices are selected, worn, stored, exchanged and recorded, and who reviews results.
- Interpret a result using the device, wear period, detection/reporting threshold, work history, expected peer/work-area pattern and possible mishandling.
- Conduct a complete investigation and communicate conclusions and uncertainty.
1.2.4. E 2.1.2d — Advocate, educate and communicate
- Intervene when a control, authorisation, procedure or result is unsafe or unclear.
- Explain risk and required action at the recipient's level of understanding.
- Use training, feedback, incident learning and committee review to strengthen safety culture.
1.3. LO 2.1.3 — Legal compliance
1.3.1. E 2.1.3a — Licences, approvals, certificates and audit
- Distinguish possession, use and transport licences; individual supervision/authorisation; approvals to acquire, relocate or dispose; and certificates of compliance.
- For a person or item of equipment, determine the permitted source, practice, location and conditions from the actual instrument.
- Explain how controlled registers, expiry checks, RSPP audits, certificates, QA records and source-lifecycle records demonstrate compliance.
1.3.2. E 2.1.3b — Legal requirements for monitoring
- State the applicable Queensland limits by exposure category and explain when monitoring is required.
- Distinguish a legal limit from an investigation level, typical departmental result and device reporting threshold.
- Explain record ownership, worker access/notification, investigation and long-term retention.
1.4. LO 2.1.4 — Advice and written application
1.4.1. E 2.1.4a — Apply protection management to target groups
- Compare patients undergoing imaging, radiotherapy patients, research participants, staff and public.
- Identify controlled/supervised/public areas and the controls appropriate to each.
- Quantify only with a suitable source, dose quantity, uncertainty and comparator.
1.4.2. E 2.1.4b — Evaluate compliance processes
- Select an auditable requirement and test the full evidence chain: authority, local control, accountable role, performance record, review and corrective action.
- For premises, use the official Queensland premises standard and current certificate—not lecture shorthand—as the compliance basis.
1.4.3. E 2.1.4c — Assess medical, occupational and public risk
- Characterise hazard, exposure scenario, likely dose, relevant biological endpoint, affected group and uncertainty.
- Compare against the correct prescription, constraint, investigation level, reference level or legal limit.
- Recommend proportionate controls and define how effectiveness will be verified.
1.4.4. E 2.1.4d — Compare research/ethics and special-exposure information
- Distinguish normal clinical management from additional research exposure.
- Explain the complementary roles of the researcher, ROMP/medical physicist, HREC, clinician and Responsible Person.
- Compare risk information for research participants, carers/comforters and embryo/fetus without transferring one group's constraint to another.
2. Curriculum coverage matrix
| LO | Expected capability | Assessment evidence | What competent performance looks like | Core primary sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1.1 | Identify and discuss local radiation-protection legislation | Oral | Explain the authority hierarchy; connect international/national ideas to Queensland law and the RSPP; explain risk communication and RSO/RSC governance | QLD Radiation Safety Act, QLD Radiation Safety Regulation, Standards Notice, RPS F-1, RPS C-5, GSR Part 3, RSPP |
| 2.1.2 | Understand and practise radiation-protection methods | Oral or practical | Analyse radiation harm; distinguish medical/occupational/public/environmental protection; choose and interpret monitoring; communicate and advocate safely | RPS C-1, RPS C-5, RPS 14.3, SSG-46, RSPP |
| 2.1.3 | Explain legal compliance | Oral | Explain licences, supervision, approvals, certificates and audits; state current monitoring and dose-limit requirements; identify evidence of compliance | QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 12–18, 28–45, 75–77; QLD Radiation Safety Regulation pts 4, 6–8, s 70, sch 5; RSPP |
| 2.1.4 | Practise and advise on radiation protection | Written task | Apply principles to patients, research participants, workers and public; evaluate a compliance process; assess and communicate risk; give proportionate recommendations | QLD Radiation Safety Act, QLD Radiation Safety Regulation, RPS C-5, RPS 8, RSPP; scenario-specific primary sources |
3. Core concept summaries AI
3.1. 1. Authority hierarchy and traceability
The system is a network of authority and influence rather than one strict legislative chain:
scientific evidence → international recommendations/fundamentals → international requirements/guidance → Australian framework/codes/guidance → Queensland legislation/statutory standards → licence and approval conditions → approved RSPP → controlled procedures → implementation records.
- Binding for THHS
- Current QLD Radiation Safety Act and QLD Radiation Safety Regulation, statutory standards, applicable licence/approval conditions and the approved RSPP.
- Binding through a mechanism
- RPS C-5, RPS 8, RPS 11 and RPS C-2 are prescribed licence conditions for their stated practices through QLD Radiation Safety Act s 75 and QLD Radiation Safety Regulation s 70.
- Influential but not directly binding by publication alone
- IAEA, ICRP, NDRP2, RPS F-1, RPS C-1 and RPS 14.3 unless a specific legal/licence/local mechanism is identified.
- Evidence of implementation
- Licences, approvals, certificates, training/credentialing, prescriptions, calibration/QA, monitor reports, audits, minutes, incident investigations and source registers.
3.2. 2. Queensland legal architecture
- QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 4–5
- Establish the object and guiding principles: justification, limitation and optimisation.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 12–15
- Establish possession, use and transport licensing requirements and defined exceptions.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 16–20
- Establish radiation safety standards and certificates of compliance.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 23–27A
- Control acquisition, supply, relocation, disposal and abandonment.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 28–34
- Define, approve, amend and require access/training for the RSPP.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 35–37
- Require an appropriately qualified RSO and state core functions.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 38–40
- Address monitoring and personal-monitoring records.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act s 41
- Controls diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, including prescription and delivery.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 42–44
- Set exposure and reasonable-step duties for licensees and people carrying out practices.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act s 45
- Requires notification of defined dangerous events; local incident reporting can be broader.
- QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 75–77 and QLD Radiation Safety Regulation s 70
- These provisions make prescribed codes licence conditions and prohibit contravening licence conditions.
- QLD Radiation Safety Regulation pt 4
- Prescribes minimum RSPP measures: methods/procedures, access/use, monitors, safety equipment/PPE and registers.
- QLD Radiation Safety Regulation pts 6–8 and sch 5
- Prescribe RSO qualifications/functions, monitoring and current dose limits.
3.3. 3. The three principles
3.3.1. Justification — should this exposure or practice occur?
- The expected individual or societal benefit must outweigh the radiation detriment.
- In treatment, justification is expressed through clinical indication and an authorised prescription, informed by alternatives and the patient's circumstances.
- RPS C-5 assigns individual medical-exposure justification to the appropriately authorised radiological medical practitioner. For Queensland treatment of malignant or benign conditions using radiation sources, the authorised prescriber is a specialist in radiation oncology or a medical practitioner undergoing radiation-oncology training. The ROMP supplies dose, risk and optimisation expertise but does not replace that clinical justification decision.
- Justification does not mean “radiation is safe”; it means the anticipated benefit warrants the risk.
3.3.2. Optimisation — how should it be carried out?
- Reduce the magnitude and likelihood of exposure and the number exposed as far as reasonably achievable while achieving the intended purpose.
- For treatment, protect normal tissue while delivering the required target dose; do not optimise by underdosing the target.
- Engineering controls and good design normally precede reliance on behaviour or PPE.
3.3.3. Limitation — which individual exposures have legal upper bounds?
- Applies to occupational and public exposure and other specified non-patient exposures.
- Does not apply to the intended medical exposure of a treated patient.
- Being below a limit does not prove optimisation or good practice.
3.4. 4. Exposure categories and current Queensland limits
| Category | Control system | Current Queensland source-scoped value |
|---|---|---|
| Occupational effective dose | Limitation plus optimisation | Average effective dose 20 mSv/yr over 5 years; <50 mSv in any 12 months |
| Occupational lens | Limitation plus optimisation | Average equivalent dose 20 mSv/yr over 5 years; <50 mSv in any 12 months |
| Occupational hands, feet, 1 cm² skin | Limitation plus optimisation | 500 mSv in any 12 months |
| Pregnant worker, (where known) | Limitation plus optimisation and work review | 1 mSv total effective dose during the remainder of pregnancy |
| Public/other person effective dose | Limitation plus optimisation | 1 mSv in any 12 months (sch 5 pt 3) |
| Public/other person lens and skin | Limitation plus optimisation | 15 mSv to each lens and 50 mSv to 1 cm² skin in any 12 months |
| Treated patient | Justification, optimisation, prescription, dosimetry and QA | Occupational/public dose limits do not apply to intended medical exposure |
| Research participant | Justification, optimisation, ethics review | RPS 8 constraints apply to additional research exposure, not treatment |
3.5. 5. Radiation risk and communication
- Tissue reactions
- Have severity that increases with dose once a tissue/endpoint-specific threshold region is exceeded; fractionation, volume and tissue matter.
- Stochastic effects
- Cancer/heritable risk is managed probabilistically. Protection systems use prudent models at low dose even where epidemiology cannot resolve a small excess risk directly.
- Therapeutic context
- High target dose is intended; risk analysis focuses on benefit, normal-tissue dose, plan/delivery accuracy and unintended exposure rather than comparing the prescription with a public limit.
- Communication structure
- State what happened or is proposed; who is exposed; the best dose estimate and uncertainty; the appropriate comparator; plausible health meaning; immediate action; follow-up; and who is accountable.
Avoid false precision, unexplained relative risk, comparison with the wrong population or limit, and reassurance that is unsupported by dose reconstruction.
3.6. 6. Radiation-protection methods and defence in depth
- Design
- Shielding, layout, controlled access, source containment, fail-safe design and suitable equipment.
- Premises authority and method
- The Queensland premises standard (2021) sets the statutory tests for covered rooms, including general area-dose criteria (s 2.1) and radiotherapy or HDR controls (ss 3.3–3.4). RPS C-1 and RPS 14.3 give national protection/design context; IAEA GSR Part 3, SSG-46 and SRS 47 provide international requirements, guidance and shielding methods. Check the actual design inputs and certificate; do not turn worked examples into local limits.
- Engineering
- Interlocks, beam termination, warning lights/alarms, independent monitoring channels and physical source security.
- Administrative
- Authorisation, prescription, procedures, independent checks, credentialing, scheduling, source inventory and change control.
- Monitoring
- Individual, area, equipment, operational and environmental monitoring chosen for the hazard and decision.
- PPE
- Used where appropriate, but not as a substitute for practicable design or engineering controls.
- Defence in depth
- Multiple independent barriers prevent one error from producing harm; independence and failure detection matter more than merely counting checks.
3.7. 7. Personal monitoring and investigation
3.7.1. Purpose and selection
- Demonstrate effectiveness of controls, assess dose, identify unexpected exposure, support optimisation and provide a legal/occupational record.
- Device choice follows the radiation type, energy, expected dose, body site, time resolution and task: whole-body OSL/TLD, extremity monitor, direct-reading electronic dosimeter, neutron monitor or area monitor as applicable.
3.7.2. Correct use
- Assign to one person; wear in the specified position; store away from radiation when not used; exchange on schedule; do not deliberately expose, share or remove contrary to procedure.
- Retain issue/return and result records and ensure the worker is informed as required.
3.7.3. Investigation sequence
- Validate identity, wear period, units, result/status and dosimetry-provider information.
- Check loss, damage, storage, transport, swapping, deliberate irradiation and non-occupational exposure.
- Reconstruct tasks, sources, locations, time, distance, shielding, incidents and peer/work-area results.
- Assess likely personal dose and uncertainty using independent evidence where possible.
- Compare with expected background, local investigation levels and applicable legal limits—each is a different comparator.
- Escalate to the RSO/possession licensee and regulator if the statutory or licence threshold is met.
- Document conclusion, communication, corrective action and follow-up monitoring.
3.8. 8. Licences, approvals and certificates
- Possession licence
- Authorises the holder to possess specified sources for specified practices; identifies the approved RSPP and may include conditions.
- Use licence or prescribed authority
- Defines the individual, source and practice permitted. Supervision exceptions must be matched to the QLD Radiation Safety Act, QLD Radiation Safety Regulation and actual circumstances.
- Transport licence
- Controls transport of radioactive substances; the transport code is a standard condition.
- Approval to acquire
- Required before acquisition where the QLD Radiation Safety Act applies and identifies the source allowed to be acquired.
- Approval to relocate or dispose
- Controls relocation/disposal and associated notification.
- Certificate of compliance
- Demonstrates an accredited assessment against the relevant statutory standard. Under QLD Radiation Safety Regulation s 8, covered diagnostic/therapeutic apparatus generally has a 1-year period and covered premises a 5-year period; the exact apparatus/QA-program category must be checked.
- Audit question
- Is the source/person/practice/location within scope, is the instrument current, are all conditions met, and is there retained evidence?
3.9. 9. Governance roles
- Possession licensee
- Holds primary organisational duties, resources the system, ensures authorised use, provides monitoring and maintains compliance.
- RSO
- Statutory qualified adviser/monitor who assesses hazards, supports training, reviews monitoring, inspects, investigates and reports. The RSO advises and assures; the role does not absorb every duty of management or users.
- RSC
- Local multidisciplinary governance body reviewing policy, training, monitoring, incidents, new/changed practices and performance. It is a local control, not a body expressly required by the QLD Radiation Safety Act in the same way as the RSO.
- RSWG
- Local operational forum supporting incident/near-miss learning, education and escalation.
- Individual user
- Must act within licence/authorisation/competence, follow the approved RSPP and procedures, use controls correctly and report hazards/events.
3.10. 10. Medical exposure and the treatment pathway
- RPS C-5 is a standard licence condition for relevant Queensland human diagnostic and therapeutic practices.
- Safety spans referral/justification, prescription, identification, simulation, contouring, planning, calculation, data transfer, OIMS/record-and-verify, setup, imaging, delivery, monitoring and follow-up.
- For a therapeutic procedure, RPS C-5 requires the authorising radiological medical practitioner to provide the written prescription and approve the treatment plan before first treatment delivery.
- Core barriers include competent roles; acceptance/commissioning; calibration and clinical dosimetry; independent plan/MU checks; patient-specific verification where indicated; identity/site checks; data-integrity checks; treatment observation; controlled maintenance/change; and incident learning.
- A correct machine output alone cannot protect against a wrong patient, wrong prescription, wrong plan, transfer error or unapproved change.
3.11. 11. Pregnancy, research and other special scenarios
3.11.1. Pregnant worker
- Once pregnancy is known or ought reasonably be known, apply the 1 mSv remainder-of-pregnancy effective-dose limit, optimise further, assess duties and communicate without unnecessary exclusion or stigma.
3.11.2. Pregnant patient
- Establish pregnancy status where clinically relevant, preserve urgency and benefit, estimate embryo/fetal dose with suitable methods, involve the radiation oncologist and ROMP, document counselling and avoid a universal decision threshold without the scenario-specific primary source.
3.11.3. Research participant
- Separate normal clinical exposure from additional research exposure. The researcher supplies the protocol; the medical physicist independently assesses/verifies dose and risk; the HREC assesses ethics/justification/consent; the Responsible Person ensures regulatory systems.
- RPS 8 states that its tabulated constraints apply to diagnostic research exposure, not radiation therapy. Do not use them as radiotherapy prescription limits.
3.11.4. Cardiac implanted electronic device
- Determine device/dependence, anticipated dose and radiation characteristics, then follow the current departmental protocol and current primary professional guidance. Detailed risk categories from TG-203 are not reproduced because that source is not retained here.
3.11.5. Radiopharmaceutical patient attending radiotherapy
- RPS 14.2 does not govern the radiotherapy practice itself, but it addresses exposure from radioactive patients who attend another medical procedure after radiopharmaceutical administration.
- When practicable, perform the other procedure before administration. If attendance after administration is necessary, confirm the radionuclide, administered activity, administration time, patient-specific factors and intended RT interaction with nuclear medicine staff or the relevant RSO/physicist.
- Assess external exposure and, where relevant, contamination or bodily-fluid controls; minimise close-contact time while preserving care; communicate precautions; and document the assessment. Prior administration alone does not prove that the RT procedure must be delayed or cancelled.
3.12. 12. Compliance and audit as a closed loop
- Identify the binding requirement and source scope.
- Identify the local control and accountable role.
- Define the required record and acceptable evidence.
- Sample performance, including exceptions and changes.
- Compare evidence with the requirement; do not treat document existence as implementation.
- Assess significance and immediate risk.
- Correct, communicate and assign ownership/timeframe.
- Verify effectiveness and close the action through governance.
4. Practice questions
4.1. LO 2.1.1 — Oral questions
4.1.1. Q1. Explain the radiation-protection authority hierarchy from your local radiation safety and protection plan up to international guidance.
Give a two-minute answer that starts internationally and ends with a treatment or QA record. State which layers are binding and which only inform practice.
Answer:
4.1.2. Q2. What do justification, optimisation and limitation each ask?
Define each principle and apply it separately to a radiotherapy patient and an occupationally exposed worker.
Answer:
4.1.3. Q3. What is the legal and practical status of the THHS RSPP?
Explain why it matters, what sits above and below it, and how compliance is demonstrated.
Answer:
4.1.4. Q4. Compare the RSO, RSC and RSWG.
Which role is statutory, what are the main functions, and why does committee oversight not remove individual accountability?
Answer:
4.1.5. Q5. How would you communicate a small unexpected staff dose?
Structure a conversation with the worker before the investigation is complete.
Answer:
4.2. LO 2.1.2 — Oral and practical questions
4.2.1. Q6. Design protection controls for normal linac operation.
Use the hierarchy of controls and defence in depth. Explain what protects the patient, worker and public.
Answer:
4.2.2. Q7. Investigate an unexpectedly high OSL result.
The result is above the worker's previous pattern but below a legal dose limit. Describe your complete investigation and decision points.
Answer:
4.2.3. Q8. Choose between an OSL badge, electronic dosimeter, ring monitor, ion chamber survey meter and neutron meter.
For each device, give one suitable radiation-therapy use and one important limitation.
Answer:
4.2.4. Q9. A worker declares pregnancy.
What legal limit applies, what assessment is required, and how should the response balance protection, privacy and fair work allocation?
Answer:
4.2.5. Q10. Explain why patient protection cannot be reduced to ALARA.
Use a curative radiotherapy plan as your example.
Answer:
4.2.6. Q11. A radiopharmaceutical patient attends radiotherapy.
A patient received a nuclear-medicine radiopharmaceutical earlier that day and now presents for radiotherapy planning or treatment. Explain the information you need, who should advise, the exposure pathways, immediate controls and how you decide whether to proceed.
Answer:
4.3. LO 2.1.3 — Compliance questions
4.3.1. Q12. Distinguish a possession licence, use licence, approval to acquire and certificate of compliance.
For each, state who or what it controls and name the evidence you would inspect during an audit.
Answer:
4.3.2. Q13. When can someone use a source without holding an ordinary use licence?
Explain how you would determine whether supervised practice or another statutory pathway applies.
Answer:
4.3.3. Q14. Audit one radiation-therapy apparatus and its premises.
List the documents, dates, tests, conditions and records you would check, and explain how you would respond to a gap.
Answer:
4.3.4. Q15. State the current Queensland occupational and public limits without applying them to a patient.
Include adult effective dose, lens, extremity/skin, public effective dose and declared-pregnancy provisions.
Answer:
4.4. LO 2.1.4 — Written-task prompts
4.4.1. Q16. Written advice: pregnant radiotherapy patient
A patient may be pregnant shortly before pelvic radiotherapy. Write a structured radiation-protection assessment and advice plan. Do not assume a fetal dose or a universal decision threshold.
Answer:
4.4.2. Q17. Written advice: research imaging added to a trial
A protocol adds imaging that is not part of normal clinical management. Explain the approvals, dose/risk assessment, optimisation, consent information and records required.
Answer:
4.4.3. Q18. Written compliance evaluation: personal monitoring programme
Evaluate whether the department's personal-monitoring programme demonstrates compliance and effective optimisation.
Answer:
4.4.4. Q19. Written risk advice: member of public near a treatment bunker
A renovation changes the occupancy of a room adjacent to a bunker. Explain the assessment, immediate controls, calculations/measurements, legal comparison, certification implications and communication.
Answer:
4.4.5. Q20. Written advice: cardiac implanted electronic device
A patient with a cardiac implanted electronic device is planned for radiotherapy. Outline the information, roles, risk assessment, controls, monitoring and escalation needed.
Answer:
4.5. Rapid recall
- Which Queensland sections require possession and use licences?
- Which sections establish and approve the RSPP?
- Which role is expressly statutory: RSO, RSC or RSWG?
- Which section of the QLD Radiation Safety Regulation prescribes RPS C-5 as a licence condition?
- Does a legal dose limit prove that exposure was optimised?
- Do occupational/public limits apply to a patient's intended treatment exposure?
- What is the current public effective-dose limit in Queensland?
- What is the pregnant-worker effective-dose limit after pregnancy is known or ought reasonably be known?
- What is the difference between a monitor result, investigation level and dose limit?
- Name four records that demonstrate implementation rather than merely planned compliance.
5. References
5.1. Binding Queensland and local sources
- Radiation Safety Act 1999 summary and retained Act PDF.
- Radiation Safety Regulation 2021 summary and retained Regulation PDF.
- Radiation Safety Standards Notice 2021 summary.
- Standard for premises—ionising radiation sources (2021) summary and official Queensland Health PDF. This is the current title; “PR100” is the older designation still used in the supplied RSPP.
- Approved THHS Radiation Therapy RSPP summary and controlled source copy.
- RSPP resources — authority figures and links to the interactive views.
5.2. Prescribed national codes and supporting sources
- RPS C-5 — Medical Exposure — prescribed Queensland possession/use licence condition for relevant human diagnostic and therapeutic practices (QLD Radiation Safety Act s 75(3); QLD Radiation Safety Regulation s 70(1), item 2).
- RPS 8 — Human Research Exposure — prescribed for health-related research on persons (QLD Radiation Safety Regulation s 70(1), item 5).
- RPS 11 — Security of Radioactive Sources — prescribed where the practice involves a security-enhanced source (QLD Radiation Safety Regulation s 70(1), item 7).
- RPS C-2 — Safe Transport — prescribed for transport licences by QLD Radiation Safety Act s 75(4) and QLD Radiation Safety Regulation s 70(2).
- RPS C-1 — Planned Exposure Situations, RPS F-1 — Fundamentals and RPS 14.3 — Radiotherapy guide — important national sources, but not labelled directly binding here without a specific mechanism.
- ICRP Publication 103, IAEA GSR Part 3, IAEA SSG-46 and IAEA SF-1 — international recommendations, requirements, guidance and fundamentals that influence Australian sources but do not directly regulate THHS.
5.3. Currency and evidence gaps
- Legal currency was rechecked against the official in-force Queensland pages on 17 September 2026: the QLD Radiation Safety Act page was consolidated as at 10 February 2026 and the QLD Radiation Safety Regulation page as at 14 December 2025. The locally retained PDFs are slightly earlier consolidations, so the official current text prevails.
- The official Standard for premises—ionising radiation sources (2021) was checked against the retained PDF on 29 September 2026 and summarised. Use the PDF, including its complete test tables and exceptions, for an operational assessment.
- ICRP 84, AAPM TG-36 and AAPM TG-203 are curriculum references but are not retained in this corpus. Detailed numerical claims from them are therefore study gaps rather than assertions in this note.
5.4. RPS 14 family — current status and Topic 2.1 relevance
| Document | Topic | Current status | Relevance to this radiation-therapy project |
|---|---|---|---|
| RPS 14 | Code of Practice for Radiation Protection in the Medical Applications of Ionizing Radiation (2008) | Withdrawn; superseded by RPS C-1 plus RPS C-5 | Historical parent code only. It should not remain listed as a current governing reference. |
| RPS 14.1 | Safety Guide for Radiation Protection in Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology (2008) | Still used as interim best-practice support for RPS C-5; rewrite in progress | Its stated scope excludes radiotherapy, including treatment planning with dedicated equipment. It is relevant only if the service separately undertakes genuine diagnostic/interventional radiology, not merely because radiotherapy uses CT simulation or IGRT. |
| RPS 14.2 | Safety Guide for Radiation Protection in Nuclear Medicine (2008) | Still used as interim best-practice support for RPS C-5; rewrite in progress | Its scope excludes external-beam and sealed-source radiotherapy. It is nevertheless useful at the interface when a patient administered a radiopharmaceutical attends radiotherapy and may expose RT staff. |
| RPS 14.3 | Safety Guide for Radiation Protection in Radiotherapy (2008) | Still used as interim best-practice support for RPS C-5; rewrite in progress | Directly relevant and correctly included in the corpus and RSPP. It provides practical guidance; RPS C-5 supplies the prescribed code requirements. |
5.5. RSPP reference-list review finding
- The controlled THHS RSPP currently cites RPS 14 and RPS 14.3; it does not cite RPS 14.1 or RPS 14.2.
- The RPS 14 entry is stale because the code has been withdrawn and superseded. A future controlled RSPP amendment should remove RPS 14 as a current reference and retain RPS C-1, RPS C-5 and RPS 14.3 with their correct titles, years and roles.
- RPS 14.1 should be considered only if the plan covers a separate diagnostic/interventional radiology practice; its own scope excludes radiotherapy and dedicated treatment-planning equipment. RPS 14.2 should be added only if the plan defines a real nuclear-medicine interface, such as management of a radiopharmaceutical patient attending RT; the supervisor's curriculum mention alone is not enough.
- The same bibliography pass should correct APRANSA to ARPANSA, give RPS C-5 its correct title and year, and update the RPS 11 citation from the superseded 2007 edition to the 2019 edition already prescribed by the current QLD Radiation Safety Regulation.
- Do not silently edit the controlled RSPP. A reference update should follow the RSPP's document-control, governance and regulatory approval pathway, including QLD Radiation Safety Act ss 30–32 where a change to the approved plan requires recording or approval.