An Assessment of the Potential Impacts on Irradiated Nuclear Fuel Transportation Operations of Applying ICRP Publication 60 Recommendations to Transport Regulations•

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provides the worldwide basis for regulating the transportation of radioactive materials, the current form of which was issued in 1985 and has since been amended (IAEA 1990). This document [denoted here as \"Safety Series No. 6\"] serves as regulations for activities controlled or funded by the IAEA and as a model for domestic regulations. The \"General principles for radiation protection,\" embodied in paragraphs 201 - 205 of Safety Series No. 6, are patterned after the requirements set forth in the IAEA's companion document on basic safety standards for radiation protection (IAEA 1982) [denoted here as \"Safety Series No. 9\"]; and these in turn were developed based upon various recommendations made by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). As noted in the Foreword to the 1985 Edition of Safety Series No. 6 (removed in the Foreword of the 1990 amendment), the document: \"sets forth a new system of dose limitation, the components of which are: (1) justification of the practice, (2) optimization of protection for sources of exposure, and (3) individual dose Limitations. \" This paper focuses on the third component noted above, that is, upon the requirements to provide individual dose limitations. This need to implement limitations on individual dose commitments resulted in the requirements in paragraph 204 of Safety Series No. 6 dealing with operational radiological protection which, among other things specify that, for occupationally exposed workers, if: (i) \"the dose received is likely to be between 5 mSv (500 mrem) and 15 mSv (1500 mrem) per year, periodic (as necessary) environmental monitoring and assessments of radiation exposure levels in work areas (including in conveyanas) shall be conducted; and\" (ii) \"the dose received is l~ly to be between 15 mSv (1500 mrem) and 50 mSv (5000 mrem) per year, individual ratlUJtion exposure monitoring programmes and special health supervision shall be required. • Beyond the inclusion of this requirement, the need for including dose limitations resulted in the addition in paragraph 205 of Safety Series No. 6 of design (or planning) limits for calculating segregation distances or dose rates in regularly occupied areas that require, for transport workers, \"a dose level of 5 mSv (500 mrem) per year as the Limiting value: This limit was derived as being a reasonable fraction (1/10tb) of that allowed in Safety Series No. 9 for all sources.