Mike,
You may absolutely right. My radiation training was about a
year ago and I all I remember is that no kids were allowed in radiation
areas at ORNL (Tennessee) and BNL (New York). This could be because any
place deemed a radiation area exceeds the rate allowed under federal law
for minors.
My question is how do you monitor exposure? Do you use film
badges? How do you reliably assure parents that their kids are not
getting more radiation than allowed? Like I mentioned earlier, all you
need is one parent with a little bit of misunderstood or misinterpreted
information to cause a major pain in the ass. It almost seems that it
may not be worth it. I don't have to worry about it, because even if I
greatly accelerated pace of the physics course I would teach in the
block scheduling I will be in next year, there is no way I would come
close to being to do radiation labs.
Oh yeah, then there is also the issue of girls volunteering if
they are pregnant or not and signing the proper waivers saying they
understand the risks of not revealing such information (guardian may
have to sign as well). This may tick off parents too.