NukeWorker Forum
Reference, Questions and Help => Nuke Q&A => Topic started by: focus on Apr 26, 2008, 08:55
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hey there
not sure if this is the right place to post on this forum but oh well.
just wondering fellas what are your current Life doses for dealing with nuclear? For stuff like going into Vault, Rubber Areas ect.
I'm a ferrely new worker to nuclear industry so im learning ALOT everyday about. Love it!!
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Not sure what you mean by rubber areas? Are you talking about
respirator required? same with Vaults?
Most commercial exposure in a BWR is received in the drywell, refuel
floor, or Rx Bldg rooms...such as RWCU or RHR.
In a PWR, it is inside the bioshields (which are called vaults at some
plants) where the primary side of Steam Generators are located along with Reactor cooling pumps, etc. There is also dose to be had in the reactor cavity, near the Rx Head and in the transfer canal.
Also RHR rooms, Heat exchangers, etc.
All this being said, my personal exposure is 28 REM and change...
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hay focus, eye yam tinking yer axing bout hole body dose that has been received in nuke plants as appozed to udder areas of employment, write? aye gots sum ware round 26 rem. mosta my dose hast bin received in da power plants, but i got some at different types of sights. butt, since i don't split hares about were i got da dose, i'm jist lumping it all two gether four ya.
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Your dose will be closely linked to the facility and position you have. I received 3.5 R in the Navy in eight years, 31 R in 16 years in commercial power, and 1 R in the last 13 years in DOE (remediation). If you are starting out as a deconer or shielder you can expect to be on the high side for dose as are reactor service technicians. Long ago I met a Westinghouse tech who had a 100 R lifetime dose, that was only ten years of work in the old days with the 5(N-18) dose limit and 3 R a quarter. Vaults? Do you mean Hot Cells? If you are going in for maintenance or clean up I would expect your dose to be on the high side.
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I managed to get <2 Rem while in the Navy..... and accumulated about 3 Rem since then... I know I glow but not as brightly as some of you other guys
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The vaults are part of the Reactor Building in a CANDU where the hot stuff is around the reactor.
Rubber Area is the Canadian term for Contaminated Area - It is where you have to wear rubber shoe covers and gloves. A Rubber Change Area is a High Contam. Area.
My life dose is about 12 rem. That isn't very high compared to some, but I haven't been exposed nearly as much in the last 10 years as before. I had almost 11 Rem a decade ago. I got all but half a rem of that in commercial nukes over an eleven year period. The other half-Rem was from my Navy years.
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I've acquired around 2R in 5 years of being in this line of work. The majority of that picked up in one season when I first started S/Gs
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Since 1978, I have about 20 Rem lifetime. Not much the last 10 years.
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i see....wow...some of you are pretty high up there...my 53mrem are nothing compare to you guys :)
next saturday im going to another plant for water lancing on the boilers and there im probably goingget it good!
just wanted to make it clear.....some of you have 20+R ......have you ever notice any health problems? hair lose? teeth are loose? ect.
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i see....wow...some of you are pretty high up there...my 53mrem are nothing compare to you guys :)
just wanted to make it clear.....some of you have 20+R ......have you ever notice any health problems? hair lose? teeth are loose? ect.
I have about 14R lifetime over about 18 years. started as a deconner in 1990 now working as a reactor service technician. now to answer your question about losing our hair and teeth....
I think that one falls under " Old age " since alot of us are not in our twenties anymore !!
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^5 Viking fan I quit counting after 30 years of age I was already close to 30 rem. But the last 10 years just under 4..
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Hmmm, about 1.4 Rem. About 600 MR in the Navy, 800 MR commercial, mostly as an NLO 16 years ago.
Mike
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about 20 Rem lifetime. Most from HBR in the early eighties with S/G work as an HP.
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i see....wow...some of you are pretty high up there...my 53mrem are nothing compare to you guys :)
next saturday im going to another plant for water lancing on the boilers and there im probably goingget it good!
just wanted to make it clear.....some of you have 20+R ......have you ever notice any health problems? hair lose? teeth are loose? ect.
hellth problems? wail, my loose morals bin tightening up........................
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hellth problems? wail, my loose morals bin tightening up........................
The dose equivalent of Beer Goggles perhumps?
Mike
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about 14 rem over 25 years.
I've still got my hair but both of my children were born naked and didn't have hair or teeth
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Oh a little over 20 Rem since 82'. 1250 mRem during the Navy and the rest commercial.
just wanted to make it clear.....some of you have 20+R ......have you ever notice any health problems? hair lose? teeth are loose? ect.
Nah, hair what hair? No teeth loose, polydent holds just great :)
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Didn't we used to have a poll along this vein? I can't find it now...maybe one of the gurus could turn this into a poll?
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Got 20 REM from 1974 to 1989, just over 3 since then. Got just over 6 REM in one year (1978) between Indian Point 2 and Pilgrim.
Got all my hair and teeth although it is starting to affect my hair color...
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16 Rem since 1974, most at ChemNuclear, the last few mRem at SRS since 1991.
:D
Nah, hair what hair? No teeth loose, polydent holds just great :)
[/quote] And yes I agree with the Polygrip comment. ;D
But I do have most all my hair, although I keep it very short. ;)
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30+ REM...about 12R in 2.5 years at HBR, another 10R in the five years that followed on the road. Another 10R in the 10 years that followed that partially on the road. and <1R in the past 12 years staying put. Something to be said for staying put! Although I don't think any site will ramp you up like the HBR's of yesteryear. They had a four R/yr limit and you couldn't leave until you were done, if there was anything left in December they would catch you up.
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Just over 30 REM, most of it came early at TMI, Trojan,
etc....
Got an old friend John D. (Duke) work for Westinghouse
who has over 100 REM lifetime, he's semi-retired now
and just helps with refuel stuff. Sill has all his hair and
the teeth look good LOL...
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well good to know that everyone is staying healthy and in good shape
do any of you have any photos of you working in the reactor building? i have a couple but i'm not sure if i am aloud to post them on the internet....i should really ask my manager about stuff like that
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you might try looking in the picture section for what ever site you might be interested in. for instance right now i am working at cooper. if you were to look in the cooper photo section you could find some photos from the last refueling RF23 ).
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Some where around 24 Rem. A bunch from IP 2 back in the eighties working for Numanco. I think the only dose I'll be getting for a while is from my TLD going through the X-ray at the airport!
LM
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well good to know that everyone is staying healthy and in good shape
do any of you have any photos of you working in the reactor building? i have a couple but i'm not sure if i am aloud to post them on the internet....i should really ask my manager about stuff like that
Look at the top of the page, and click on the Pictures tab. There are tons of cool pics there.
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Oh, about 7 rem in 18 years. The most picked up at one time 1.2 rem in 20 minutes.
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If we are going for fastest dose accumulation (I recommend against it) I got my first REM cleaning out a sump at Maine Yankee in 1974 (maybe early '75) most of it in about 10 seconds. I was an engineering aide subbing as a 'radwaste technician' for Hittman at the time. Somebody handed me a bucket and yelled "Run" so I ran to the shielded drum and dropped it in. I remember the HP with the teletector saying 'wow' as I ran past. About two months later I was an HP (I learn quickly.)
I also got 100 mR in about 5 or 6 seconds when I got sent into the wrong room in 1976 to take a survey with a very old-fashioned hand-held dose rate meter you had to press a button on to get a reading. Walked inot the room, pushed the button and it read about 100 R/hr. Left the room and locked the door. Quick lesson on entering rooms with the right meter on the right scale and paying close attention... back to that 'learn quickly' thing.
Of course there are the old S/G jumper stories. Took someone from 0 lifetime to 2.75 REM in about 3 minutes once. Ah, the good old days...
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I was lucky , I toured the glamour spots of Nuke power like Surry, North Anna, Indian Point II, Zion and picked up 60 rem in my first 15 years but nothing since 1995
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I was lucky , I toured the glamour spots of Nuke power like Surry, North Anna, Indian Point II, Zion and picked up 60 rem in my first 15 years but nothing since 1995
Quite the tour. Sounds like you could have used a lesson in 'learns quickly' at the time. Glad things are working out better for you in the dose department now.
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I got my first REM cleaning out a sump at Maine Yankee in 1974 (maybe early '75) most of it in about 10 seconds. Somebody handed me a bucket and yelled "Run" so I ran to the shielded drum and dropped it in. I remember the HP with the teletector saying 'wow' as I ran past. About two months later I was an HP (I learn quickly.)
Life time dose ~28 REM. I also would get the fish net with the 8foot handle and run 100r/hr filters to the HIC in the "gates of hell" in radwaste at Maine Yankee.
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Life time dose ~28 REM. I also would get the fish net with the 8foot handle and run 100r/hr filters to the HIC in the "gates of hell" in radwaste at Maine Yankee.
You had an 8 foot handle? Damn, that would have been nice. I had to grab the handle of the bucket.
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Somebody handed me a bucket and yelled "Run" so I ran to the shielded drum and dropped it in. I remember the HP with the teletector saying 'wow' as I ran past. About two months later I was an HP (I learn quickly.)
Promotions were given to the fastest and brightest.At least there were coffee,donuts and cigs in the containment bullpen.
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About 16 R in ~ 28 yrs.
First couple R was inna SG - I was the good jumper that didn't throw up in the respirator. :P
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Of course there are the old S/G jumper stories. Took someone from 0 lifetime to 2.75 REM in about 3 minutes once. Ah, the good old days...
That's my story, jump the secondary side went down the stick ladder below the girthweld to install a spacer in this new invention called a SG Annulus Seal System. Yea the good old days got burnt out and spent the next 5 months driving a truck around the protected area.
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Just a touch over 36 Rem in 27 years, like most I haven't picked up much in the last 10 years. The most at one time was 1.25 Rem, in the filter running days.
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Been in and out of the industry for 19 years. I took somewhere around 7 years off to do other things so realistically I have around 12 years of being an HP Tech. 2 of those years were on the USS Enterprise during the refuel and overhaul, picked up around 1300 Mrem during that time and my total lifetime dose is in the neighborhood of 7 Rem.
In this game, the lower the number the better...don't need to tell any of you that. I was very fortunate to get into this work when the industry was starting to really embrace the idea of ALARA.
I have always believed that as an HP I should lead by example and spend as much time as I can in the "Cold Zone" (I can't help it if the lowest dose is in the breakroom!).
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Somewhere around 15 R, 1983 - 2006, mostly PWR work, some government work. Out of business since 2006. Like golf, lower is better. Technology these days helps to lower dose and is fascinating.
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Worked in the business of almost 38 years, lifetime dose is around 38 Rem. Not proud of it, wish that they had used the same principles back in the old days thay they use now. But that's life. Have spent almost equal time in B's as P's and about 5 years in DOE. Rad teching has changed and the coverage methods highly improved (remote cameras and dose monitoring equipment and techniques. More concerns for worker exposure as well as the techs nowadays. Stay away and use common sense, if your not sure don't do it without stopping and thinking before acting and always ask because today someone has already done it and advise is always beneficial. Stupidity and showmanship has no place in todays business.