A A field test for extremity dose assessment during outages at Korean nuclear power plants

Abstract

During maintenance on the water chamber of a steam generator, the pressuriser heater and the pressure tube feeder in nuclear power plants, workers are likely to receive high radiation doses due to the severe workplace conditions. In particular, it is expected that workers' hands would receive the highest radiation doses because of their contact with the radioactive materials. In this study, field tests for extremity dose assessments in radiation workers undertaking contact tasks with high radiation doses were conducted during outages at pressurised water reactors and pressurised heavy water reactors in Korea. In the test, the radiation workers were required to wear additional thermoluminescent dosemeters (TLDs) on their backs and wrists and an extremity dosemeter on the finger, as well as a main TLD on the chest while performing the maintenance tasks.