Re: Hot Spot Exemption

[mikeg@SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Michael P. Grissom)]

Well, the classified (pun or otherwise) button issue is getting a 
little warm here, but there are some fairly well known issues.
The services and US DOE have nuclear weapons radiological controls 
programs designed to protect workers/weaponeers as required.

As Bob notes, for most of the old stockpiles around the world, 
configured devices would not often have any exterior point that 
would be a "hot spot".  However, in maintenance mode, some 
precautions and special posting could be necessary dependent upon 
what the work was and which device was in process.  Radmaterial
posting probably would depend on what stage of assembly/disassembly
the material was in.

The posting issue is primarily of concern to DOE labs (particularly
for Pantex which is tasked with the disassembly of a great many 
nuclear weapons as part of the recent stockpile reduction treaties.  
The intrinsic shielding of configured weapons is removed during dis-
assembly so some precautions similar to those in the active service
maintenance arena (and more, such as work in blast cells in case 
all does not go well, there is a lot of HE involved, you know) 
would be needed.  At what point the material becomes "radmaterial"
and no longer a weapon component is probably the crux of the
problem.

Anyway, these are my opinions and actually may not be reflective
of the situation at any given site in the current world!

>...While I believe that weapons and weapon components may trigger
>the x5 criteria, I would have to guess, based upon monte carlo 
>calculations of a few old weapon designs and a single survey of a 
>newer device, that one would not meet the 100 mrem/hr (1 mSv/hr) 
>on contact criteria - hence not a "hot spot".
>
>On the other hand, they are classified (no pun intended) as 
>Radioactive Material.  However, RCM 412.2(h) specifically exempts 
>"nuclear weapon components" from the radioactive material labeling
>requirements.
>
>Robert M. Loesch
...
-----------------------
Michael P. Grissom
mikeg@slac.stanford.edu
Phone:  (415) 926-2346
Fax:    (415) 926-3030