Consequences of Nuclear Material Container Spills - Worker Risk

The Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Materials Packaging Manual M441.1-1 provides packaging requirements for protecting workers from exposure to airborne contamination hazards that could result in a worker receiving an internal radiation dose in excess of 5 rem Committed Effective Dose Equivalent (CEDE). The Manual adopts the content limit approach used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for radioactive shipping packages. This approach is not readily applicable to a facility worker due to differences in assumptions about airborne concentrations and time of exposure to name only two. Thus, we propose an alternate approach by applying the methodology for determining inhalation dose to a human receptor found in DOE-HDBK-3010 combined with worker biokinetic models developed by the International Commission on Radiological Protection Publication 68 Dose Coefficients for Intakes of Radionuclides by Workers and worker exposure times that are more consistent with facility worker training and procedures for responses to radioactive material spills. This methodology is used to more accurately estimate the expected worker dose associated with a radioactive material package spill in a nuclear facility. The analysis presented herein is intended to be used as an evaluation tool to better inform facility radiation protection personnel, management and workers of the risk of handling radioactive material packages in nuclear facilities.