Locked High Rad Areas

[dmercer@email.fpl.com]

     Paul
     You wrote
     [cut]
     >When an individual or HP Office is responsible for several or many 
     >Locked High Rad Areas, is your practice to have one key that fits all 
     >the locks, or to have a unique key for each lock? Is your practice 
     >driving by regulation or the result of practical evolution? 
     >(Unfortunately, these are not the same!)
     [paste]
     
     To the best of my knowledge the regulations are silent with respect to 
     the administrative aspects of locking high radiation area.  From my 
     experience, the more high radiation areas that there are to be 
     controlled the more practical it is to have a common core/key 
     combination.  In a common key/core program there are far fewer keys 
     over which I have to maintain control and accountability and the key 
     control program is much simpler for the supervisors and technicians 
     responsible for implementing the program.
     
     With respect to Very High Radiation Areas, VHRA, (you didn't mention 
     that you have to deal with these bad boys) the regulations are silent 
     on the type of key control, the regulatory guides are not.  Regulatory 
     Guide 8.38 "Control of Access to High and Very High Radiation Areas in 
     Nuclear Power Plants" June 1993, states "A key for access to a very 
     high radiation area should unlock only that area".  If you have VHRAs, 
     you might want to review RegGuide 8.38.  While it focuses on NPPs, my 
     hunch is that it could be used in other facilities.
     
     Doc Mercer
     Health Physics Technical Section Supervisor
     St.. Lucie Plant
     dmercer@fpl.email.com
     
     
     These expressions a strictly mine - standard disclaimers