Occupational radiation exposures during maintenance activities at nuclear power plants

Occupational exposures at nuclear power plants occur mostly during maintenance activities rather than during routine reactor operation. In this paper, statistical summaries of occupational exposures during routine maintenance activities for the years 1982-84 at nuclear power plants in Japan are presented, including comparison of the exposure levels by reactor type and by plant age. Average annual collective doses per reactor for BWRs and PWRs are 7.30 man-Sv and 2.84 man-Sv, respectively, and 78% and 89% of annual doses are incurred during maintenance activities. Average annual outage days of BWRs and PWRs for routine maintenance are 102 d and 97 d. Annual collective doses per reactor, most of which occur during maintenance activities, usually increase with plant age. Higher collective doses are observed for routine maintenance performed on older reactors as compared to newer reactors, especially in BWRs. Collective doses accrued during respective routine maintenance activities have a significant correlation with duration of maintenance and number of workers involved in maintenance.