Dose to Construction Workers at Operating Reactor Sites - Contract No. at (45-1) - 1830

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3. BUDGET ACTIVITY NO. 5. METHOD OF REPORTING ADDITIONAL JUSTIFICATION FOR OPERATING COSTS RICHLANO OPERATONS OFFICE .EROA PREPARED BY BAT TELL E - NORTHWEST DOSE TO CONSTRUCTION b10RKERS AT OPERATING REACTOR SITES FY 1975 Fy 1976 [ 3 MOS ) io. FUNDING (DOLLARS IN THOUSANDS) - CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NOT RELATE D- TO CONSTRUCTION

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Not Appli cable Pub1 ications Since January 1974 (Other t h a n Topical and Progress Reports): None, Purpose, Need and Scope: The purpose o f this study is t o measure and evaluate radiation dose rates t o construction workers a t various reactor sites where one or more reactors a r e operating while construction is proceeding on one or more The pro1 i feration of mu1 ti unit commercial nuclear power reactors i n the United States could lead t o considerable exposure o f construction workers who have heretofore been considered nonradi ation workers. mation on this population group indicates t h a t a well-planned and executsd exposure study is needed. The absence o f exposure inforRelationship t o Other Projects: There are no other programs directly related t o meeting the objectives of this proposal. spectrographic measurements i n the vicinity of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. Similar measurements have been made i n the vicinity o f the Dresden Plant. All operating nuclear power plants have,as part of t h e i r required radio1 ogi cal environmental moni toring program, environmental dosimeters placed around the plants. construction workers onsite though this could be attempted ina controlled HASL has conducted ion chamber and No attempt i s made t o correlate these results with doses t o G . 14. R . Endres isa member of the Health Physics Society Standards Committez, Working Group 1 on TLD Standards for Performance. the ANSI N13/42, In-Plant Plutonium Monitoring f o r Personnel Protection He is also a consultant on Technical Progress i n FY 1975: None; proposed project t o begin i n FY 1976. w i 11 be cornpl eted : Itis expected that the following program elements (1 ) Purchase and prepare Tl dosimeters for personnel and environmental ( 2 ) Design the detailed plan for locations and personnel t o be monitored. Obtain the required access and cooperation t o conduct the studies. Plan the s i t e specific studies t o include four multiunit PWR and BWR plants. Itis anticipated that three o f the plants will be BWR's. , (3) Conduct a s i t e survey including ion-chamber and solid-state instrument measurements a t selected locations.

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DOSE TO CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AT OPERA T It lG ( 4 ) Conduct personnel and environmental measurements u s i n g thermol uminescent ( 5 ) Evaluate personnel and environmental measurements and correlate results w i t h plant personnel and environmental monitoring program results wheye Hanford multipurpose personnel dosimeters will be assigned t o selected workers representing several different j o b classifications a t both the operating reactor and the reactor under construction. These dosimeters are capable of measuring dose from beta particles,high and low energy photons and fast and thermal lov energy photons (<50 keV), high energy photons and thermal neutrons a t selected locations around the sites. Special environmental dosimeters will be used t o measure dose from TLD measurements will be evaluated for personnel and the environs d u r i n g routine operations a s well as during maintenance and refueling cycles of the operating will be determined as we11 as the man-rem dose rates for the entire crew and for identifiable tasks. The range of individual dose rates for various job classifications Expected Results i n FY 1977: continued and the f i r s t year's data will be analyzed and reported. surveys using ion chambers and solid state detectors will be repeated a t each Personnel and environmental monitoring will be Description and Justification of Major Materials, Equipment and Other Unusually TLD reader sys tern t o con ti nuousl y process the several thousand TLDs necessary f o r the personnel and environmental dosimeters that will be cycled each month Portable solid state detection system t o conduct surveys a t various locations i n the environs of each site to spectrographically characterize potential radiation fields in which workers may be employed Environmental ion chamber t o measure low level dose rates a t various site locations

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U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION DOSE TO CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AT OPERATING I n addition t o measuring external dose t o construction workers, itis highly. desirable t o determine any internal contamination of the same group. Though samples are taken o f gaseous and liquid effluents a t points o f release and within a few miles o f operating nuclear plants, few samples are taken within plant fence lines where construction workers spend most of their time. Mole body counting of these workers i s the only accurate and conclusive way of determining precisely how much, i f any, radionuclides are present i n the body from inhalation o r ingestion. To determine the incremental internal contamination due toa given project, whole-body counting of selected workers must be perfornod early i n the project a t any dosimeter exchange period and again near the conclusion o f the project a t any dosimeter exchange period. I t is estimated that th2 two whole-body counting projects o f selected workers a t four sites would cost about $100K i n addition to the cost of the project proposed herein. The estimated cost includes whole-body counting, d a t a processing and correlation Of res 1 ts w i t h personnel and environmental monitoring results. 20. Comments: In complying w i t h the NEPA, agencies o f the Federal government must assess the envi ronmental impact o f construction and operation5 of projects under their jurisdiction. The present assessment o f the radiological impact exposure over- a working lifetime. The proposed project would provide a data base (1) from which a realistic assessment o f radiological impact could be made for construction workers of proposed multi unit nuclear plants and (2) to help arrive ata decision as t o whether these workers should be considered occupationally exposed from external and/or internal radiation. The effort to characterize four sites is expected to require a contract period of about 30 months. program implementation a t the sites will require 4-6 months. collected f o r 18 t o 22 months and data analysis and report preparation will take an additional 4-6 months. will b2 conducted ata reduced funding level. I t is anticipated that dosimeter preparation and Data will be Final data analysis and report preparation Other personnel contributing to the project: Group 3 of the ANSI Nl3/42 In-Plant Plutonium Monitoring for Personnel Proof NCRP Scientific Committee 38 on Waste Disposal. Working Group 3 on Aquatic Environment of NAS-NRC Workshop Committee on "Long Term Global Effect of Mu1 t i p l e Nuclear Weapons Detonations". LG Faust i s a member of Working J. K. Soldat is a member of the Task Group on Iodine-129 He is alsoa member of