Overview - std-1121-98-reaffirmation0016

DOE-STD-1121-98

personnel may use the specific methods and references in this standard as examples of acceptable means

and methods to meet the internal dosimetry requirements of 10 CFR 835 and recommendations of the

RadCon Standard, as elaborated in the Implementation Guide for Internal Dosimetry Programs.

The standard will be reviewed and updated by DOE when necessary. Technical advances in

internal dose assessment may allow strengthening of the performance specifications. Additional

improvements may be made to the standard as experience is gained through its use or application.

1.4 OVERVIEW

Internal dosimetry is a major component of nuclear safety for the approximately 100,000 radiation

workers at DOE radiological or nuclear facilities. Workers who handle nuclear materials or who are

involved in nuclear waste management are potentially at risk of inadvertent intakes of radioactive

material. DOE policy and associated radiological control programs for limiting internal effective dose

equivalents are based on containment of radioactive material to ensure (to the extent reasonably

achievable) that radionuclides from work at radiological or nuclear facilities are not taken into the body.

Most significant occupational intakes of radionuclides occur as the result of contamination incidents

associated with either the inadvertent release of radioactive material in the workplace or the unplanned

loss of containment.

DOE's 10 CFR 835 requires monitoring of employees likely to receive intakes of radionuclides

that would result in committed effective dose equivalents at or above 100 mrem in a year. Monitoring

programs in the workplace are designed to demonstrate that the requirements to limit exposure to 5 rems

committed effective dose equivalent (HE,50) in any year are being met. Radiation worker bioassay

monitoring programs are designed to provide the data needed to assess organ and tissue dose equivalents

from intakes of radioactive material. If exposures to radioactive materials are such that significant

internal doses are received from intakes occurring during the year, they are most often assessed using

biokinetic models.

In 1986, efforts were begun to develop a technically-based manual that would provide guidance on

developing and operating internal dosimetry programs at DOE radiological or nuclear facilities that wold

meet all applicable regulatory requirements. Input from internal dosimetry experts from DOE and various

DOE contractors has been collected for well over a decade. This document, which resulted from that

effort, attempts to assemble in one place information that will assist in meeting the requirements for

conducting a internal dosimetry program within the DOE complex.

The intent of this guidance document is to provide a fairly complete, though not exhaustive, set of

basic procedural guidelines for achieving minimum levels of acceptable performance in evaluating the

internal radiation dose equivalent that may be received by radiation workers from intakes of

radionuclides. The guidance provided here represents the collective wisdom of a diverse group with

experience in internal dosimetry at DOE facilities. There has been a conscious effort to include examples

from this group on the application of these guidance principles in the standard operations of their

administered internal dosimetry programs.

Section 2 provides the definitions and abbreviations that are commonly used in the field of internal

dosimetry.

Descriptions of documents and plans needed for an internal dosimetry program are provided in

Section 3. These include internal dosimetry technical basis documentation, an internal dosimetry