A survey of doses to worker groups in the nuclear industry

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:6017122

Khan, T A; Baum, J W

The the US National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) has suggested ...as guidance for radiation programs that cumulative exposure not exceed the age of the individual in years {times} 10 mSv (years {times} 1 rem).'' The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has recommended a dose limit of 10 rem averaged over 5 years. With these developments in mind, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested the ALARA Center of the Brookhaven National Laboratory to undertake two parallel studies. One study, which is still ongoing, is to examine the impact of the newly recommended dose limits on the nuclear industry as a whole; the other study was intended to assist in this larger project by looking more closely at the nuclear power industry. Preliminary data had indicated that the critical industry as far as the impact of new regulatory limits were concerned would be the nuclear power industry, because, it was conjectured, there existed a core of highly skilled workers in some groups which routinely get higher than average exposures. The objectives of the second study were to get a better understanding of the situation vis {grave a} vis the nuclear power industry, by identifying the high-dose worker groups, quantifying the annual and lifetime doses to these groups to see the extent of the problem if there was one, and finally to determine if there were any dose-reduction techniques which were particularly suited to reducing doses to these groups. In this presentation we describe some of the things learned during our work on the two projects. For more detailed information on the project on dose-reduction techniques for high-dose worker groups in the nuclear power industry, see NUREG/CR-5139. An industry/advisory committee has been set up which is in the process of evaluating the data from the larger project on the impact of new dose limits and will shortly produce its report. 7 refs., 5 figs., 6 tabs.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: NRC; Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 6017122
• Report Number(s): BNL-NUREG-46742; CONF-9110253--1; ON: DE92002092
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220900* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
560101 -- Biomedical Sciences
Applied Studies-- Radiation Effects-- Dosimetry & Monitoring-- (1992-)
61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY
ALARA
BWR TYPE REACTORS
DOSE LIMITS
DOSES
DOSIMETRY
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
INDUSTRY
MAINTENANCE
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR INDUSTRY
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
PERSONNEL
PERSONNEL DOSIMETRY
POWER PLANTS
POWER REACTORS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
RADIATION DOSES
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTORS
SAFETY
SAFETY STANDARDS
STANDARDS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
THERMAL REACTORS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS