airplane check

[Mauro Campoleoni <trentino@iol.it>]

Dear colleagues,

I've been recently involved in a radioprotection program for one of the two 
Milan airports. Every month, about 1200 radioactive packages pass thru the
airport, mostly pharmaceuticals but also industrial gamma sources or other
sources, and there is obviously some risk for the workers who handle the
packs,
load or unload airplanes or move the freight towards the exit.

I was asked to plan a check, made by someone else, that can reveal dangerous
situations before unloading the freight, expecially for badly closed
containers,
that might expose the workers to "high" and anyway unwanted exposure 
(I think I should be able to avoid doses of 200 - 300 microSv). We had an
accident
like this a year ago, before I started this concern, the workers got some
milliSv.
So, I'm studying to perform a check from outside the plane, a couple of
metres away from the packs, with a threshold level that might be 100
microSv/h,
taking into account the shielding of the plane cockpit and estimating 
(not so easy) that the same packs can shield each other with their lead
shieldings,
and so on.

Has anybody of you an experience in this matter? And what about the shielding
capability of the cockpit (I think it' made mostly with Al)?

Thanks for any suggestion, Mauro.

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Mauro Campoleoni
Health Physicist
Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento
Milan, Italy, tel +39+0257992166, fax +39+0257992168
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