Leather Gloves in the RCA

[Duke Nuker]

We have been told that we are going to require leather gloves for anyone entering the RCA.  No matter what your normal tasks are (firewatch, security) you have to have a pair with you inside the RCA.  My questions are:  What does the rest of the industry do?  Do you require gloves upon entry to the RCA?  How do you handle those that won't clear?  I am doing a quick assessment on this topic to help create the RP input to the prospective policy.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Jeff

[Already Gone]

Many plants have a rack or "clothesline" inside the RCA entrance.  People leave their gloves on the rack and RP surveys the rack periodically to weed out the hot gloves.  Keep clean gloves in the hot tool crib so I can get new ones once I discover that you radwasted may last pair.  For outages, you can set up another rack inside the SOP at your large CA's (containment, drywell, ..etc.)  so the folks can reuse gloves there too.  Usually, those get tossed at higher levels but it works basically the same.
This keeps people from constantly bringing new gloves into the RCA and CA's.  They almost never clear the SAM if they have been used enough, but that doesn't make them useless.  So, reuse is the most economical method as long as RP stays on top of it.  All those ones that have low levels and won't pass the SAM get promoted to the Containment tool crib.

[Melrose]

EMPHASIS  on 'RP survey of the gloves'.  When you see hand contams on the rise in a particular area...(where contaminated gloves are staged for use) check the gloves more often or kill the program.  I always wear cotton liners, surgicals then leather gloves, if I'm picking them up at the SOP.  (Contam and hygene control)

[retired nuke]

We just upped the standard here - leather gloves are not required, but some type of gloves are required. All gloves must leave the RCA at the end of each entry....monitored in a SAM-11 (small article monitor). Gloves that alarm are tossed. Launderable gloves are provided at the entrance, but they are light duty. Heavier duty can be obtained at stores (free issue) or the tool crib. All the hidey holes are being cleaned out. Was a hassle when implemented, but everyone has settled down now to the new habit - we'll see how it goes during the next outage.
I kinda like not worrying if the gloves the AOs are wearing that have been stashed in the plant for months, after various valve and equipment operations are hot or not....

[Duke Nuker]

We do save gloves that are caught by the SAM while we are online.  We place them in Containment for use during the outage.  I guess my main concern is that we will require EVERYONE who enters the RCA the have gloves no matter how mundane the task.  I am envisioning barrels of gloves that can't pass a SAM, leather gloves may be cheap, but disposal of radwaste is not. 

The replies so far have been very helpful, I hope for a few more to gain a good cross section of the business.

Jeff

[B.PRESGROVE]

When I worked at our local DOE site we made the operators wear leather gloves anytime they were handling any type of material with a potential tear or rip hazard (mainly handling drums).  We as HP never wore them unless for we had to survey a drum or anything again that may cause rips or tears. 

We kept most of the gloves that were used in RAs unless contaminated somehow, but threw out any that were used in any type of CAs.

[Nuclear NASCAR]

We're encouraged to have gloves on us all the time and that usually means we'll be carrying them into the RCA.  Most use leather gloves or Mechanix gloves.  They have to pass out through the SAM and if they don't clear we'll either tag them and see if they'll clear later or we'll pass them on to RP techs or Rad Chem Helpers to use inside the RCA. 

The leather gloves seem to clear a lot easier than the Mechanix gloves from what I've seen.

[grantime]

We are supposed to have gloves with us if we need them.  All of them are surveyed out through SAM-9 when you leave the RCA.  A good many of them fail but we collect them to use in ctmt during outages.  There is no problem getting replacements.  One potential upside is that the contamination that winds up on gloves doesn't wind up on hands instead. 

[thenukeman]

Some sams tell what the readings are.  If you know the borderline numbers are you can wipe the gloves with a law and then they will pass about 90 percent of the time.  High numbers just throw in a bag for containment.  Most I seen are borderline though.  Its the programs call.

[stownsend]

Having gloves to use for safety is great but I haven't heard anyone talk about follow up to the contaminated gloves. Are the plant people just reaching over the CA boundry or do you really have CA's unposted?

[thenukeman]

A few things I think affect the gloves,

1. What I call build up.  They are not used in a CA but touch alot of slightly crapped up stuff.  This builds up till finally the gloves fail the SAM.

2. Stupidity and Laziness, Use the gloves in CA and take them out to check at SAM.

3. High background which makes it hard to frisk.  The gloves then go slightly over in the sam.

4. it is distributed pretty even over the gloves so a frisk will not find it, but the sam catches it.

5. Gloves damp so the betas shielded but the gammas are picked up in sam.  Pancake probe only about 1 percent efficent for gamma. NAI in SAM very efficent for Gamma.

6.  A weak beta emmiter but strong Gamma emmiter, The Sam will catch.

[Already Gone]

Having gloves to use for safety is great but I haven't heard anyone talk about follow up to the contaminated gloves. Are the plant people just reaching over the CA boundry or do you really have CA's unposted?

There are as many 900dpm/100cm2 "clean" areas in this world as there are 100dpm/100cm2 Contaminated Areas.  One RP ropes off an area if he thinks he hears a click on that masslinn that he just wiped the whole floor with.  Another RP takes 4 disc smears and downposts the whole area after counting each of them for 10 sec in a 280 cpm background.

The thin line between clean and dirty is the reason why the whole RCA exists, isn't it?   I mean, if contamination was only in the posted CA's, why would we bother using PCM's and SAM's when we never crossed a SOP?  I'll bet you a popsicle that if you looked at your logs of alarms, over 70% of them were on people who never entered a CA.

[stownsend]

I'll bet you a popsicle that if you looked at your logs of alarms, over 70% of them were on people who never entered a CA.

I'll bet you that popsicle that every shoe that alarmed I went out and masslinned the floor. Then documented my findings as a follow up.
If you have a large # of gloves coming back "hot" what does that tell me about your contamination control.I don't buy the HP's are incompetent and don't know how to survey or post. Too often you see people reaching over the line or poking their fingers in where they know they shouldn't. Just because management wants square footage released, everyone needs to do their part and use some common sense as to where they stick their fingers.If plant people know that the only thing that happens is they take my gloves away what incentive do they have to stop and get an HP to survey. Too many times I have had people say it's close to lunch and I only needed to .....
Troy, I've done thousands of shipping surveys and I always take very large wipes.If I see several hundred DPM I wipe it down.I hope I haven't been away from the plants so long that the HP's are releasing areas with only a few smears.

[grantime]

typically the gloves that we see alarm the SAM-9's are non detectable with a frisker.  Often they are greasy and well used when they alarm. I think it is mostly from buildup.  There is a considerable difference between none and detectable with field instrumentation.   If you check a big enough area with sensitive enough equipment you are going to find something. 

On a similar note we have had carpet at our RCA for years.  And yes it gets contaminated and replaced.  The reason that it was put in to start with was that we were seeing contamination on the control room carpets.  Nothing major but slow buildups.  When we started using carpet at RCA exit that problem ended.  Of course, times change and now the carpet is supposed to be removed soon and replaced by tile.  Wonder how long before we get CR's about low level contamination in clean areas carpets or vacuum cleaners?

[kp88]

We all circle.  My theory is that the worst rated INPO plants visit other plants just to ensure that the best plants do the same industry standard things that they do.

[Already Gone]

I'll bet you that popsicle that every shoe that alarmed I went out and masslinned the floor. Then documented my findings as a follow up.
If you have a large # of gloves coming back "hot" what does that tell me about your contamination control.I don't buy the HP's are incompetent and don't know how to survey or post. Too often you see people reaching over the line or poking their fingers in where they know they shouldn't. Just because management wants square footage released, everyone needs to do their part and use some common sense as to where they stick their fingers.If plant people know that the only thing that happens is they take my gloves away what incentive do they have to stop and get an HP to survey. Too many times I have had people say it's close to lunch and I only needed to .....
Troy, I've done thousands of shipping surveys and I always take very large wipes.If I see several hundred DPM I wipe it down.I hope I haven't been away from the plants so long that the HP's are releasing areas with only a few smears.

It melted.  Sorry.
You are at the end where it doesn't get released unless it is clean.  But, there are times when you just can't keep an area clean, and you can't rope it off without somebody coming behind you and releasing it.

Gloves pick up contamination from tools, which are released in bulk at the end of an outage, or from valves, ladders, and other equipment that is under-surveyed because the survey map is a floorplan and HP's neglect everything but the floor.

But, you are always going to have those people who reach over the rope.  They do it when they know better, and so many these days do not know better.

[Duke Nuker]

Ow, my eye. 
Gee Troy, that hurt me right where I breathe.  I never met a floor that didn't need some serious surveying.  After all, that is where everything ends up anyway.  We obviously try to train our operators and mechanics not to reach across the boundaries, but what you can't see won't hurt you, or so they think.

While I use large area wipes to release equipment and areas, there always smears of the 100cm2 kind to quantify the contamination levels or the lack thereof on the survey.

I want to thank everyone who has chimed in to this topic.  I am writing my report this weekend (night shift is such a creative time) and will make sure to give everyone credit.

Jeff

[Jr8black3]

I think this is great, does everybody need to wear them in the RRA or RCA probably not, but it raises a great Human Preformance intrest, I've seen many people both commercial and non commercial say oh well nobody is watching, as mudane as it may seem I work through that with coaching.

Unless it interferes with critical activities I see no reason for not wearing safety gloves, just remember the glove used right might save your hand or finger, as your safety glasses may save your eye..

Just me.. I've seen people hurt over stupid things..

Just me

[PWHoppe]

Davis-Besse requires anyone entering the RCA, and turbine for that matter to have gloves with them. Usually on one of those belt clip things. There is a stach of gloves available on the hot side of containment for those folks dressing out and going in. They gloves are surveyed upon exit of the RCA with a SAM. Well, not the ones on the hot side, obviously.

I agree with Jr8black3, this is a good practice and most of the injuries we see tend to be hand injuries, so why not have the gloves instaed of using the old, well it's a small job and I don't want to go get some mentality.

[mattrev]

Nine Mile instituted this policy after an individual lost a finger when they caught a ring on a safety chain descending a ladder. Everyone carries gloves in the RCA and it's required to wear them when climbing ladders.

[thenukeman]

One other thing I failed to mention, when we get 2 or 3 pairs in one sam and they fail, you seperate them and most of the time they pass.  This kind of tells me they are starting to build up. 

[Nuclear NASCAR]

One other thing I failed to mention, when we get 2 or 3 pairs in one sam and they fail, you seperate them and most of the time they pass.  This kind of tells me they are starting to build up. 

Good point nukeman.  We usually pass ours through one pair at a time along with anything else we might be clearing out such as pager, leatherman, etc..

[stownsend]

Thanks everyone for answering my curiosity about the build up versus obvious contamination on the gloves. Gloves will actually help your safety record as a high number of our stats are first aid.

[Melrose]

Nine Mile always had that policy... just hadn't enforced it, unless you were actually working with material.  The operator's ring getting caught on the chain, simply widened their eyes.

Nine Mile instituted this policy after an individual lost a finger when they caught a ring on a safety chain descending a ladder. Everyone carries gloves in the RCA and it's required to wear them when climbing ladders.

[spentfuel]

to late for dukes whitepaper but one other comment.....

Leather gloves are often not leather at all and even if they are often the edges and stitching is nylon or some other form of poly.  Also consider that often the poly clip that the gloves are attached to the belt with also gets tossed in the sam with the glove for survey.  Point being a lot of the positives could not only be due to natural product activity ie radon but also due to fission gas.

Try using a ziplock bag and 24 hours and many may pass if remonitored.

sf