Re[2]: Collective dose and its monetary valuation - opinion

[sandy_perle@email.fpl.com]

     The concept of a man-rem monetary value has become less important in 
     this age of down-sizing, at least in the nuclear power industry. In 
     the past, when regulations allowed a higher individual dose, if an 
     individual's Form-4 was complete, the dose was less important .. and 
     it was expended based on this $$/man-rem philosophy. What happened in 
     reality was that a job was done solely based on management discretion. 
     The $$ evaluation was only used as a tool, and was for the most part 
     not the final go or no go on performing the task.
     
     Now that 10 CFR 20 has mandated new regulatory limits, the same that 
     had been adopted in the nuclear power industry many years ago, due to 
     prodding from INPO, the real issue is cost reduction. the premise is 
     to stay up and run as long as possible. Jobs are only conducted if 
     there is a "real perceived need" to perform the job. Downtime equates 
     to ~ $300K to $500K per day, depending on your fuel mix.
     
     Our concept for man-rem reduction is to treat ALARA as a check book. 
     Depts. are given so much exposure to manage. If they need more dose, 
     they need to write a variance and demonstrate where they will get the 
     dose tradeoff from. This has to go to plant management. This places 
     the accountability squarely on dept. heads. Does a job have to be done 
     or not. There isn't this $$$/man-rem discussion anymore, solely the 
     "Need" to do the work. How critical and what are the consequences of 
     NOT doing the work. This is a much better way to manage work, man-rem 
     and manpower resources.
     
     The industry is changing .. we have to change the way we think, how we 
     spread dose among the work force, and how we prioritize what needs to 
     be worked. The old concept of $$$ / man-rem is more of a thing of the 
     past, that was touted, but rarely used as designed (at least in power 
     industry).
     
     This is all my opinion as stated. I'll read the thought's of others as 
     to how this philosophy is actually managed in the field on a daily 
     basis.
     
     Sandy Perle
     Supervisor Health Physics
     Nuclear Division
     Florida Power and Light Company
     
     (407) 694-4219
     
     Home Page: http://www.lookup.com/homepages/54398/home.html