title: Radiation Safety in Nuclear Medicine Procedures.
abstract: Since the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, radiation safety has become an important issue in nuclear medicine. Many structured guidelines or recommendations of various academic societies or international campaigns demonstrate important issues of radiation safety in nuclear medicine procedures. There are ongoing efforts to fulfill the basic principles of radiation protection in daily nuclear medicine practice. This article reviews important principles of radiation protection in nuclear medicine procedures. Useful references, important issues, future perspectives of the optimization of nuclear medicine procedures, and diagnostic reference level are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical Radiation Safety Research Center, Chonnam National University Hospital, 42 Jebong-ro, Dong-gu, 501-757 Gwang-ju, Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-Geon
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical Radiation Safety Research Center, Chonnam National University Hospital, 42 Jebong-ro, Dong-gu, 501-757 Gwang-ju, Korea.
authors.forename: Jahae
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical Radiation Safety Research Center, Chonnam National University Hospital, 42 Jebong-ro, Dong-gu, 501-757 Gwang-ju, Korea.
authors.forename: Ho-Chun
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Song
keywords: Diagnostic reference level; Justification; Nuclear medicine; Optimization; Radiation safety