RE: TMI root causes

["Edwards, Richard W" <Richard.Edwards@PSS.Boeing.com>]

> ·  Training needs to have a  more realistic scenario. I have never
> see any
> Emergency Planning and Preparedness Radiological Training Course where
> a
> real radioactive source was used, or even simulated, as a source
> (without
> any notice by the trainees);
> 
> 
> 
I concur. Some of the most realistic training I received and drills I
have participated in involved "real" radiation instead of some reading
given to me by a monitor. The most extreme version of this I have heard
of involved doping water samples with short-lived beta-gamma emitters to
train radiochemists. Of course, that was a military training program and
stopped quite awhile ago.

Other techniques I have seen used involve burying sealed sources in the
ground (under the watchful eye of the local regulatory agency),
converting micro-R meters into high range instruments for use with much
lower activity sources, inserting sources into training dummies and
taping lantern mantles on to people's backs.

A resource I have yet to try are the companies that manufacture
simulated radiation monitors that operate by detecting radio waves from
a small transmitter or vapors emitted from a chemical sprayed onto
surfaces.

I highly recommend training in scenarios where the needles really move.
Both as a student and as an instructor I have found this to add a level
of reality that makes a drill scenario much more effective and
indicative of what the trainees might really do.

Rick Edwards, Analyst
The Boeing Company
richard.w.edwards@boeing.com