Re: Pu in open-front hoods

["Steve Fonseca" <SFONSECA@gw.odh.state.oh.us>]

You may want to consider glove boxes.   These were used at Battelle years ago with their Pu work.

There is also a useful but general guideline, from International Labor Office "Guidelines for the Radiation protection of Workers in Industry (Ionizing Radiations) Occupational Safety and Health Series 62 International Labour organization 1989"  This guide is included in "The Health Physics and Radiological Health Handbook, Revised Edition Bernard Shleien pg 403"  The guide is about 3 pages long and has three tables which cover 1) type of Work place  2) Radionuclides Grouped by Radiotoxicity 3) Type of operation.  

Using the guide and your information, you have*
Type I work place, which is a normal, "modern", good quality, chemical laboratory and Pu Very High Radiotoxicity Group.  Operation Limits are then calculated as: Storage 50E06 Bq, Very simple Wet Operations 5E06 Bq, Normal Operations 5E05 Bq, Complex wet operations and simple dry operations 5E04 Bq, Dry and Dusty operation 5E03.

I hope this helps


Steve Fonseca
Ohio Dept of Health Laboratory
email: sfonseca@gw.odh.state.oh.us
voice: 614 644-4633
fax: 614 752-9863

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