[ RadSafe ] Re: Understanding negligible dose

[Wesley]

Barbara and All,

 

You said: 

 

Virtually all radioactive materials licenses for unsealed radioactive
sources (let's skip the NPP licensing issues for now)  have some upper
bound for contamination in unrestricted areas, and these limits are also
used as  limits for unrestricted release of materials, equipment, wastes,
etc.   These limits are generally quite low, but non-zero, and have been
used for releases for over 50 years, with some ratcheting down across time.

 

I think your last sentence is not true for NRC licensees. Say, for example,
you have an operating limit of 400 dpm/100cm2 as an action level for clean
up of contamination. If you have items that survey at, say, 300 dpm/100cm2,
are you saying that these can go in the trash? In my example, the item is
below the normal operational action level, but definitely known to be
contaminated.  I believe that there is no level of solid radioactivity that
can legally be put in the trash by a licensee for disposal.

 

Best regards,

Wes

Wesley R. Van Pelt, PhD, CIH, CHP

Wesley R. Van Pelt Associates, Inc.