A Berkshire-based company, Gemini Technology (Reading) Limited, has been slapped with a £16,000 fine for putting one of its employees at risk of exposure to ionising radiation. The dangerous incident occurred while an employee was working on an irradiator at a calibration facility operated by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) on September 7, 2018.
The employee was exposed to potentially lethal radiation levels of 500 milliSieverts (mSv) per hour during this work. To put this in perspective, the average person in the UK is exposed to just 2.7 mSv annually. Exposure to doses exceeding 100 mSv can lead to changes in red blood cells, and even small doses of radiation can elevate the long-term risk of cancer.
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