Evaluation of Strategies for Monitoring and Sampling Airborne Radionuclides in the Workplace

Protection of workers from intakes of airborne radioactive materials is receiving increased attention as part of the overall emphasis on minimisation of occupational radiation exposures. Because current guidance of the International Commission on Radiological Protection on protection from airborne radionuclides is based on annual limits on intake, ALI, and average annual air concentrations derived from these ALIs, increased effort is being devoted to monitoring exposure levels, directly or indirectly, in the workplace. Possible approaches include the use of fixed air samplers, continuous air monitors, and personal air samplers worn by individual workers. Periodic bioassay of these workers by whole-body counting, chest counting, or excreta analyses can provide useful information the adequacy with which the above approaches are monitoring the workplace. Because each approach requires a major commitment of institutional resources, it is important that the overall monitoring plan should also address the dual purposes of the monitoring programme: (a) minimisation of exposure, and (b) evaluation of exposures that occur. Historical experiences in various nuclear facilities as reported in the literature or obtained from personal communications are being evaluated to assess the potential strengths and weaknesses of various monitoring approaches for achieving these purposes. Based on these analyses, strategic approaches will be recommended for designing and implementing an optimised monitoring programme. The use of optimised programmes should maximise the health protection value obtained from the total resources expended.