Radiation performance index for dutch dwellings: consequences for some typical situations

This paper describes the new approach to control radiation exposure from natural sources toinhabitants of dwellings that is presently being considered in the Netherlands. The goal of thisapproach is to uphold the current rather favourable situation (average annual effective dose due toindoor radon and external radiation in dwellings is approximately 1 mSv). To achieve this goal amodel is foreseen to predict the potential effective dose an inhabitant may receive from a dwelling onbasis of its building plan. A scheme to calculate this dose is proposed in this paper. In future, such ascheme will be included in the Dutch Building Codes and new to built houses will be evaluated byusing this scheme and comparing the results with, yet to be posed, limits to the potential effective dose.