----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 7:43
AM
Subject: Radiation protection support
criticality safety
My consideration is based in the following
IAEA docs.
a) Method for the Development of Emergency
Response Preparedness for Nuclear or Radiological Accidents, IAEA TECDOC 953,
1997;
b) Generic Assessment Procedures for
Determining Protective Actions During a Reactor Accident, IAEA TECDOC 955,
1997
c) Intervention Criteria in a nuclear or
Radiation Emergency, IAEA Safety Series 109, 1994
d) Generic Procedures for Assessment and Response
During a Radiological Emergency, IAEA TECDOC 1162, 2000
I do believe you can find them in your
library.
Resume
1) Fuel Fabrication Uranium - No potential
for doses in excess of urgent level GILs off site from criticality
accidents.
On site: Potential for deterministic health
effects and doses in excess of urgent level GILs off site from criticality
accidents.
2) Fuel Fabrication Pu - No potential for
doses in excess of urgent level GILs off site from criticality accidents.
Large fires or explosions could result in doses off site in excess of urgent
level GIL near the facility. This will be function of
inventory.
On-site:Potential for deterministic health effects and doses in
excess of urgent level GILs from criticality accidents. Fires and explosion
could result in doses in excess of urgent level GILs on site from
inhalation.
The operator has three principles
responsibilities during a accident first to prevent or mitigate a release,
second to assess the severities of the accident and notify offsite officials
and recommend actions and thirdly assure the on-site responders are
provided adequate radiation protection.
Radiation Protection Activities
- In order to provide adequate radiation protection (on site and off
site) to emergency workers the pathways of importance must be know and some
method must be provided to monitor or estimate the dose received by workers by
theses pathways. The emergency workers must be provided clear
instruction concerning dose levels that should not be exceeded when performing
various emergency functions. Emergency workers can also be provided
protective clothing, respiratory protection, thyroid blocking drugs (if the
case), or other protective measures. However the crucial element in
emergency workers is the ability to measure or estimate the dose received by
the workers.
This must include exposure limits for the
expected response activities such as: assess control, assisting in evacuation,
monitoring, decontamination, accident assessment and providing
medical assistance. These guideline (limits) must be consistent (c -
Safety Series 109). In addition provision must be made
to monitor the dose of the workers to include self-reading dosimeters,
exposure rate meters or other means to assure that the exposure of
workers can be monitored. Monitoring must be provided that will remain
on scale under severe accident conditions. Where possible methods to
reduce the exposure of workers such as respiratory protection,
protective clothing and provision to practice and use of special tools
in very high dose areas.
The general principles for radiation protection
involvement applied to
criticality accident, is also applied to other
accident, not necessary involving criticality, like the
Radiological
Accident in Goiania, as example. The complexity makes
the level of training and response.
For instance, the emergency response to
Goiania Accident was more complex
than the Tokaimura Accident.
As
General coordinator to respond the Radiological Accident in Goiania
several
lessons learned applied to Radiological situation and Radiation Protection
involvement, were:
a) Instrumentation should be capable of being
adjusted to withstand field
conditions, so that it can be used in high
humidifies, high temperatures and
unstable environmental conditions;
b)
Personal using instruments should be trained to be able to obtain a
clear
indication of dose rate response, for a wide range of doses; and to
know the
most suitable equipment in different conditions and its
calibration factors;
c) Training to interact the different groups and
organization to respond
the emergency and Radiation protection support many
of such groups;
There are others, however I'll not mention because I do
believe will not
apply to USA, due its capability to immediate
response, e.g to collect, segregate and transport
waste from affected
environmental area to a Repository, which is not the
case of many
countries, including Brazil.
In Goiania the Radiation Protection Group was
involved in:
Procedures to work according with situation
identified
Medical support
Supporting Civil Defence (we have no
fire)
Supporting army's special group during houses
demolishing
Terrestrial and aerial survey
Radiation monitoring and
sampling
Population monitoring
Decontamination of People
Personal
monitoring
Decontamination of areas
Decontamination of vehicles and
equipment
Radioactive Waste management (including transport)
Record
data
Accident reconstruction and dose estimation
If you wish I can send 4 or 5 slides (ppt presentation)
of the radiation protection activities in Goiania
Hope this helps.
Jose Julio Rozental
Israel
----- Original Message -----
From:
Minnema, Douglas <Douglas.Minnema@nnsa.doe.gov>
To:
Radsafe (E-mail) <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>
Sent:
Wednesday, April 03, 2002 6:49 AM
Dear RADSAFEr's,
I am
preparing to give a workshop entitled "The Health Physics Aspects
of
Criticality Safety" at the upcoming ANS Radiation Protection
Division
meeting in Santa Fe. Although the presentation, based on
material I
developed from our long-past RADSAFE discussions on the
Tokaimura accident,
is well under way, I thought that I would ask you all a
question: what do
you think a health physicist needs to know about
criticality safety? I
would appreciate your thoughts, which would
help 'calibrate' my
presentation, and I'll try to get answers for your
questions back to you as
well.
Please respond directly to me at the
address below. If anybody will be in
Santa Fe, please stop by and
visit.
Thanks,
Doug Minnema, Ph.D., CHP
Radiological Control
Program Advisor for the National Nuclear Security
Administration
<Douglas.Minnema@nnsa.doe.gov>
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