About the Radiation Safety Academy

The Radiation Safety Academy was established as a consulting practice by Ray Johnson in 1984. The practice was formerly named Communication Sciences Institute (CSI) which Ray founded after retirement as a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Public Health Service. Our services are directed to persons who want the best understanding and assurance of radiation safety.

The Academy now has a full-time staff of nine, including four senior health physicists (all are Certified Health Physicists with graduate degrees) and one degreed health physicists. The Academy’s CHPs are not only well recognized national experts in radiation safety, they are also radiation safety training professionals with extensive teaching experience. Our staff has decades of experience working in and managing radiation safety programs.

Professional Staff

The following information presents a brief overview of consulting staff qualifications and experience. Complete resumes for senior staff can be accessed by clicking on the staff name below or from our Faculty/Staff page.

Some of Our Recent Clients

Our goal is to assist clients in using radioactive materials and radiation sources safely, with assurance that radiation doses to workers and members of the public are as low as reasonably achievable, and also protective of the environment. During recent years we have provided valuable consulting and training services to the following government agencies, non-profit organizations, commercial businesses, education institutions, and hospitals.

Government Agencies

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• long-term contract for professional radiation safety services (see below for details)

Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• development and hosting of radiation safety on-line training website

Department of Energy (DOE)
• 5-day class on "Practical Tools for Response to Nuclear Terrorism", Albuquerque NM
• Certified Health Physicist training for Westinghouse, at the Savannah River Plant

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• one-day workshop on management of terrorism events
• five-day course for Radiation Safety Officers
• one-day refresher course for DOT HAZMAT certification

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• long-term contract for professional radiation safety services (see below for details)
• final status surveys for decommissioning of 3 biomedical research laboratory buildings

Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS)
• one-day class on liquid scintillation counting

US Customs and Border Protection
• 5-day courses in radiation safety protection

Non-profit Organizations

Canadian Radiation Protection Association (CRPA)
• 3-day class on training for radiation safety trainers

National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
• member of Institute of Medicine Committee on Battlefield Radiation Exposures
• consultant to Committee on Alternatives for Controlling the Release of Solid Materials from Nuclear Regulatory Commission Licensed Facilities

Commercial Businesses

Alcan Rolled Products
• annual audits, license amendments, safety plan revisions

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
• Acting RSO, licensing, training, surveying, leak test analysis

Celera Genomics
• HP services, licensing, auditing, training

Domino Sugar
• radioactive gauge annual audits and annual refresher training

Eli Lilly
• audits of research facility

Kraft Foods
• industrial x-ray safety program and worker training

Moravek Biochemical, Inc.
• expert witness, auditing, radiation worker training

Philip Morris
• research facility license application, training, on-going consultation

Siemens Maintenance Services
• annual leak test analysis of 4,000 sealed sources

Siemens Medical Solutions
• licensing and RSO training, State regulatory compliance evaluation

Veterinary Emergency Center
• licensing and sample analysis for feline thyroid iodination treatment

Wyeth Research
• annual audits, DOT worker training

Educational Institutions

Catholic University
• decommissioning funding plan, surveys

George Mason University
• University radiation safety consultant and radiation safety board member

James Madison University
• final status surveys of biomedical research laboratories and a waste storage facility

Princeton University
• radiation safety program audit

State University of New York
• hazardous materials response training

University of Arkansas
• auditing and training for radiation workers

University of California, Santa Cruz
• final status surveys of biomedical research laboratories

University of Pennsylvania
• radiation worker and hazardous materials response training

University of Texas
• radiation worker and hazardous materials response training

Hospitals

INOVA Mount Vernon Hospital
• training for medical response to terrorism

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

• radiation safety program review

National Institutes of Health

From January 1, 1993 until October 15, 2006, the Academy provided radiation safety services to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under a Regulatory Support Contract. The scope of work included providing professional health physics staffing services, conducting comprehensive radiation safety inspections of over 3,000 NIH laboratories, performing annual calibrations, inspections, and repairs of over 2,500 radiation instruments, conducting environmental monitoring; providing support to the NIH radioanalysis laboratory, managing the NIH hot lab facility; managing the I-131 therapy rooms; providing emergency response and decontamination support; surveys of research and medical X-ray units; and frequent checking for security of radioactive materials. In 2003, our contract was modified to include performing MARSSIM type final status surveys in support of decommissioning and renovation of facilities. In addition, the Academy also performed administrative services, e.g., maintaining the NIH radiation safety data base supporting comprehensive inspections, survey meter calibrations, environmental/effluent sample analyses, protocols, authorizations, Authorized User audits, enforcement actions, and security checks.

Over 13 years the Academy performed more than 80,000 radiation safety inspections, conducted over 24,000 meter calibrations, deployed, collected and prepared for analysis over 20,000 environmental/effluent samples, prepared over 15,000 samples for analysis in the NIH laboratory, and conducted over 2,500 hours of radioactive materials security checks. Each month the Academy project supervisor prepared a Quality Assurance Report which summarized the quality control reviews of all contract activities. Overall these reports established a track record of outstanding performance. This does not mean that the Academy performed without errors. Rather, errors or deficiencies that were identified through the Quality Assurance Program were reconciled and corrections were made as appropriate, including retraining of staff to assure continuing high quality performance.