IAEAInternational Atomic Energy Agency

Current practice of occupational radiation protection in industrial radiography

IRPA13, 13-18 May 2012, Glasgow, Scotland

John Le Heron1, Richard van Sonsbeek2, Gonzague Abela3, Francisco da Silva4, Razak Hamzah5, Thomas Levey6, Matthias Purschke7, Kamal Sahaimi8,

Christian Lefaure9

1 Division for Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety, IAEA, Vienna, Austria2 Applus RTD, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; 3 EDF, Saint Denis, France

4 IRD/CNEN, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 5 Malaysia Nuclear Agency, Kajang, Malaysia6 Acuren Group Inc, Edmonton, Canada; 7 DGZfP, Berlin, Germany

8 CNESTEN, Rabat, Morocco; 9 Consultant, Paris, France

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Outline

• ISEMIR & WGIR• The WGIR survey• Selected results• Tools for optimization of protection

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ISEMIR & WGIR

• Information System on Occupational Exposure in Medicine, Industry & Research• Launched in January 2009, to help improve occupational

radiation protection in targeted areas

• Working Group on Industrial Radiography (2010)

• A worldwide survey of current occupational RP practice in IR• 3 Questionnaires

− Industrial Radiographers (Operators)−NDT Companies −Regulatory Bodies

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The questionnaires addressed:

• Education & training of radiographers in radiation protection

• Learning from accidents, near misses, and deviations from normal operations

• Systems and procedures in place for safe operation• Emergency preparedness and response• Individual monitoring

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Distribution & Responses

Operator Company Regulatory Body

English X X X

German X X

French X X

Portuguese X X

Spanish X X

Dutch X

Russian X X

Chinese X X

• Translation into several languages

• Distribution:• Contacts of WGIR members

for the Operator & Company questionnaires

• IAEA for RB questionnaire

• Responses, after about one year of distribution:

Operator QuestionnaireCompany

Questionnaire Regulatory Bodies

Operators Companies Countries Companies Countries

Global 432 151 31 95 29 59

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A few selected results

• But first a caveat or two:• Operator and company questionnaires:

• Method of distribution probably means:• Participants are likely to be at the “better end” of

the practice spectrum• Many questions involved self-assessment of habits or

performance• Hence perception versus reality

Results from the survey probably give an over-optimistic picture

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Learning from incidents

• Rate of occurrence in industrial radiography:

• Level of dissemination of lessons learned appears to be low• 40% of NDT companies do not share information on incidents with other

organizations

Operator responses Company responses

# per operator per 5 year # per operator per 5 year

Accidents 0.04 0.03

Near Misses 0.1 0.05

Deviations 0.6 0.05

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Individual monitoring - 2009

D<mdl mdl≤D<1 1≤D<5 5≤D<10 10≤D<20 20≤D<50 D≥500

10

20

30

40

Percentages of radiographers with annual dose in the dose bandsData from Radiographers Data from NDT companies Data from Regulatory Bodies

Annual effective dose (mSv)

% in

eac

h do

se b

and

Mean effective dose (mSv)

% ≥ 20 mSv

Radiographer data

3.4 2%

RB data 2.9 2%

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Dose versus workload

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 200000

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Annual effective dose versus annual workload: Industrial radiographers, 2009

Number of exposures in 2009

An

nu

al e

ffec

tive

do

se (

mS

v)

Scope for improved optimization of protection

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ISEMIR – an international database (1)

• A tool for optimization of Occupational RP• Primarily for the end-user

• Based around individual NDT companies• Individual personnel in each company

• Occupational doses• Radiographic workloads • Individual attributes that might influence occupational

dose

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2

4

6

8

Estimates of mean occupational dose per exposure, based on use of collimators in gamma radiography

mean - 2σ/√n

mean

mean + 2σ/√n

Use of collimators

Oc

cu

pa

tio

na

l do

se

pe

r e

xp

os

ure

(µ

Sv

/ex

p)

ISEMIR – an international database (2)

Individual’s metric:• Dose per exposure

• Workload• Doses

Individual’s attributes:• Professional training• RP training• Role• RP habits• Sources used and where• Incidents

Analysis of dose per exposure • Based on any combination of:

• Individuals’ attributes

Bench-marking• NDT company performance• Individuals within a company

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The Road Map

• Self assessment tool for NDT companies• Based on questions in the Company

questionnaire• Results of the Company questionnaire are

used to define good practice

A company’s strengths and weaknesses identified

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Summary

• The worldwide survey showed that there is considerable scope for improvement in occupational radiation protection in industrial radiography

• Two tools for optimization are being developed for use by NDT companies• International ISEMIR database • The road map