Radionuclides and the emitted radiations have long been applied routinely throughout all branches of engineering and the technologies to obtain useful results, many of which could not have been obtained by other means.

As with the application of any other tool or technique, problems can be encountered. Practitioners working with radioactivity face health risks but long-standing records show that, overall, risks in the nuclear industries have been consistently smaller than those faced by workers in most other industries. This is so not least thanks to easily followed, legally backed precautions, developed over the decades to ensure safe operating conditions during all nuclear radiation applications carried out within the common sense rules devised for that purpose.

This book was written for workers and students as yet largely unfamiliar with the nuclear sciences and with the advantages in numerous fields which quickly become apparent on employing nuclear radiations. The potential of nuclear science and engineering for enhancing, e.g. the effectiveness of nuclear power production and of radioactive tracers is far from exhausted. Today's beginners could have a highly rewarding way ahead of them.

A useful overview of the contents can be readily obtained by scanning the chapter and section headings in the table of Contents. The bibliography contains over 120 references to assist practitioners looking for more detailed and/or more specialised information than could be included here. The latest information about nuclear data and specialist techniques is available via the Internet, with web sites and other comments listed in Appendix 3.