Applying ALARA Principles in the Design of New Radiological Facilities

Journal Article · 01 March 2022 · Health Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/hp.0000000000001515 · OSTI ID:1843182

Baker, Samuel I. ^[1]; Kamboj, Sunita ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

The application of ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principles to the design of new radiological facilities at Argonne National Laboratory provides a consistent radiation safety basis for future facility operations. The Department of Energy Rule 10 CFR 835 specifies design objectives to be adopted during the design of new facilities for controlling personal radiation exposure. One is to keep exposure levels below 20% of the applicable standards in 10 CFR 835.202. For a radiation worker 20% of the standard corresponds to 5 µSv hr^-1 for a 2,000 hour work year. For a member of the public the DOE design objective corresponds to 0.2 mSv in a calendar year. For a new facility worst case radionuclides and their source strengths are chosen. Local shielding is specified to reduce exposure rates to less than 50 µSv hr^-1 at 30 cm from the shielding. The current version MCNP6 of the Los Alamos radiation shielding computer program MCNP is then used to calculate the exposure rates elsewhere. Design modifications are made to meet the criteria. The calculations and resulting facility design modifications are discussed for two new radiological facilities.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1843182
• Journal Information: Health Physics, Vol. 122, Issue 3; ISSN 0017-9078
• Publisher: Health Physics SocietyCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English