Quality Assurance - STD-1128-98master0089

DOE-STD-1128-98

Guide of Good Practices for Occupational Radiological Protection in Plutonium Facilities

3.8.3 Quality Assurance

Important aspects of any ALARA program are the measurement of beneficial effects and the

determination that important factors, such as economic impacts, the time involved in

accomplishing tasks, and the utilization of personnel, are being optimized. To accomplish

these objectives, it is necessary to have a written plan for the ALARA program and high

quality records of activities involving exposures to workers, the public, and the environment.

These permit comparisons with past experiences and analysis of the recorded activities. In

many cases, such studies of the recorded activities not only confirm satisfactory execution of

the work, but reveal opportunities for future improvements.

One approach which works very well is the inclusion of an ALARA worksheet along with

the RWP. Such a worksheet should be prepared by an individual with responsibilities for

the work to be performed, a relatively detailed knowledge of the radiological conditions, and

knowledge of what is required to accomplish the task. The worksheet should contain

estimates of the time to complete the task and the expected radiation doses that will be

received. If any special engineered devices are used to control or reduce personnel

exposure, they should be noted on the ALARA worksheet, along with any special

instructions that they require. These worksheets provide valuable information for analysis

of the effectiveness of the ALARA program for each job.

3.8.4 Technical Aspects

The technical aspects of ALARA programs include not only the standard equipment

regularly used in controlling dose to workers, the public, and the environment, such as

facility shielding, ventilation filters, installed and portable radiation measuring instruments,

but also many special devices that may be used temporarily. Special devices can be used to

provide exposure control and/or containment when it may not be practical without them.

These include temporary shields, tents or greenhouses, portable fans, ductwork and filters,

and special fixtures to hold highly radioactive materials requiring detailed inspections,

repairs, modification, or fabrication. Such devices can permit doing difficult work at low

radiation doses, which might not be possible otherwise.

Some of these special devices may have general application and can be kept on hand for use

as needed. In some cases, devices would have to be especially fabricated for a specific task.

Since this would ordinarily have a significant effect on the cost of doing that job, the

economic aspects of doing or not doing the job would have to be carefully evaluated.

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