RE: HP lab survey frequency

["Jim F. Herrold" <Herrold@UWYO.EDU>]

> How often does your health physics staff visit and survey 
> laboratories in your organization? Wipes, meter survey, that type of
> survey.
> 
> weekly _____  monthly _______ quarterly ____X____
> 
> other ___X____
> 
We inspect radionuclide labs quarterly. We always perform meter surveys, but
only perform wipe tests twice a year. X-ray diffraction labs are inspected
twice a year, where x-ray units are checked for leakage.

> Approximately how many labs do you survey at that frequency?
> 
We have about 40 radionuclide labs and four x-ray labs.

> Do you usually find contamination during your smear survey and
> meter survey or is it rare to find to find unexpected contamination?
> 
Contamination is found in about 25 percent of the labs, but usually in
expected areas (micro centrifuges, waste areas) rarely on work surfaces,
storage areas, floors, door handles, etc. Last summer we walked into a lab
where the tech said, "I just did our lab surveys. If you find contamination
I'll eat it." Considering this a challenge I proceeded to locate at least
one contaminated centrifuge. I did not make her eat it, however.

> If you do find contamination, what is the activity level?
> 
Our action level is two times background (with background subtract).
Contamination usually ranges from 300 to 5000 cpm. This is purely from my
failing memory, not actual data. 

> If you can make a brief statement as to why you are doing surveys at
> the frequency you use, I would appreciate that as well.
> 
Five years ago we were inspecting only twice a year. When we renewed our
license the NRC suggested we should visit the labs more frequently.
Quarterly wipe tests were too time consuming and hard to schedule (we use
part-time student help mainly, and scheduling is easier during Christmas and
Summer breaks), so we opted to check the lab's own monthly survey records
and do a geiger survey in the Spring and Fall. If we find something with a
geiger, we follow up with a wipe test. In x-ray diffraction labs there is no
standard for survey frequency in our state. We picked a frequency that
seemed reasonable to us, maybe even a bit excessive because we never find
anything.

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Jim Herrold, Radiation Safety Officer
University of Wyoming
herrold@uwyo.edu

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