title: Workplace characterisation in case of rail transport of radioactive materials.
abstract: IRSN has been asked by SNCF (French Railways) to carry out measurements in order to establish the values of ambient dose equivalents H*(10) in the vicinity of shipments of radioactive materials to assess the external exposure to ionising radiation to which employees may be subjected during the carriage of radioactive goods. Detailed dosimetric characterisations of the wagons have been made and the external exposure at different stages of the work that is done by the employees have been measured in terms of H*(10). For the study presented in this paper, and corresponding to a used fuel shipment composed of UO2 and UO2-PuO2, it has been observed that the photon and neutron doses are very similar. In addition, the order of magnitude of the total dose integrated by an employee who would carry out 100 times the series of essential operational tasks, has been found to be approximately 250 microSv. This value is compared with those observed for other previously investigated shipments involving the exposure to photon fields only.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), BP 17, F-92262 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France. laurent.donadille@irsn.fr
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Donadille
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Itié
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lahaye
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Trompier
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Bottollier-Depois
mesh_terms: D001822:Body Burden; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005602:France; D038622:Internationality; D008954:Models, Biological; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D011890:Railroads; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013048:Specimen Handling
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes