RADIATION PROTECTION GROUP ANNUAL REPORT 2009
EDMS No. 1078667EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCHSafety CommissionCERN-DGS-2010-001-RP2 July 2010RADIATION PROTECTION GROUPANNUAL REPORT 2009D. Forkel-Wirth, M. Silari (Editors)GENEVA2010
RP ANNUAL REPORT 2009Executive Summary1RP Group organisational chart31 Environmental impact and public exposure41.1 Introduction41.2 Monitoring program in 20091.2.1 Stray radiation1.2.2 Radioactive substances in released air1.2.3 Radioactive substances in released water1.2.4 Environmental samples4101011111.3 Results of monitoring in 20091.3.1 Stray radiation1.3.2 Activity released with air1.3.3 Activity released with water1.3.4 Environmental samples12121414161.4 Radiological impact1.4.1 Critical groups of the population1.4.2 Effective doses due to the stray radiation1.4.3 Effective doses due to the releases of air and water252526262 Occupational exposure282.1 Introduction282.2 Statistics283 Operational radiation protection at the PS accelerators complex333.1 Introduction333.2 Activities333.3 Surveillance333.4 Radioactive material343.5 Operational dosimetry343.6 ISOLDE374 Operational radiation protection at the SPS accelerators complex394.1 Introduction394.2 Doses and major interventions in the SPS complex394.3 Beam intensities and radiation surveys4.3.1 SPS4.3.2 North experimental areas4.3.3 CNGS434348484.4 Operational radiation protection during LHC commissioning48i
5 Radioactive waste management535.1 Waste treatment535.2 Waste project556 Radiation protection services566.1 Introduction566.2 Control of basic nuclear material (MNB)566.3 Management of radioactive sources566.4 Transport of radioactive material566.5 Gamma spectrometry57ii
EDMS # 1078667Executive summaryThe RP Annual Report summarises the activities carried out by CERN’s Radiation ProtectionGroup in the year 2009. It includes a contribution from the EN section of the SC/IE Group onenvironmental monitoring. Chapter 1 reports on the measurements and estimations of the impact on theenvironment and public exposure due to the Organisation’s activities. Chapter 2 provides the results of themonitoring of CERN’s staff, users and contractors to occupational exposure. Chapter 3 and chapter 4 dealwith operational radiation protection around the accelerators and their experimental areas. Chapter 5discusses radioactive waste management and Chapter 6 addresses the various services provided by the RPGroup to other Groups and Departments at CERN, which include lending radioactive test sources andshipping radioactive materials. The group organisational chart is shown on page 3.Releases of short-lived radioactive gases and of long-lived beta/gamma radionuclides attached toaerosol as well as of tritium, gaseous alpha activity and of radioactive iodine were monitored at theventilation outlets of CERN’s accelerator facilities. In 2009, these releases caused an effective dose tomembers of the public of less than 4.3 µSv. The radioactive substances discharged into the rivers Nantd’Avril and Le Lion and to the stream Le Nant were predominantly tritium and long-lived gammaradionuclides, mainly 22Na. However, their impact on the environment was negligible. The correspondingdoses to members of the public were less than 0.05 µSv. CERN-made radionuclides could not be clearlyidentified in all environmental samples except river bryophytes and sediments where their activitydensities remained below a fraction of 3 10-3 of the applicable limits. The total effective doses tomembers of the reference population groups from stray radiation and releases were assessed to be lessthan 11 µSv in 2009, which is 3.7% of the annual limit of 300 µSv. The prevailing part of the effectivedose was due to external exposure, which is monitored on-line and in real time. Hence, thanks to the realtime monitoring, corrective measures could be taken rapidly if necessary. The Large Hadron Colliderresumed its operation in autumn of 2009 but the beam intensities were so low that neither releases ofradioactive substances nor emission of stray radiation from the facility were observed.The Individual Dosimetry Service has been monitoring about 6300 staff, users and contractorswith personal dosimeters for gamma/beta and neutron radiation in 2009. The collective personal dosereceived at CERN amounted in 2009 to 397.5 person-mSv ( 24% with respect to 2008). This is mainlydue to an increase of small personal doses in the interval between 0.1 and 1.0 mSv. The start of theexperimental programme at the LHC has led to a significant increase in persons who are monitored allyear ( 14%) with the total number of persons remaining nearly constant. As in previous years, less than1% of the monitored personnel received a personal dose in excess of 1.0 mSv.The radiation levels in the controlled areas at the accelerators, experimental areas and at theborders of the CERN site are monitored continuously by fixed monitors over the entire year. In addition,radiation protection technicians regularly carry out manual monitoring during routine procedures, inparticular during the shutdown and maintenance periods. In the PS accelerator complex, the trend toincreased activation of all components due to the operation of the high-intensity CNGS beam wasconfirmed for the second year. A new extraction scheme of particles from the PS ring has been tested; itreduces beam loss and thus activation nearly everywhere in the ring, but leads to higher radiation levelson the extraction septum. This observation is significant, as the two operations leading to the highestcollective personnel dose in 2009 at the PS complex were exchanges of septa (11.2 mSv).In November 2009 a new (more sensitive) PCM probe was used for the SPS ring survey. Thedose rate comparison of the ring surveys, after beam operation in 2008 and 2009 has shown a generalincrease of residual doses in all SPS tunnel areas except for Sextant 6. In particular, the extraction forCNGS has increased the residual dose rates in Sextant 4 by a factor 3 as compared to 2008. The ringsurvey proved again to be valuable for the localisation of beam loss points in Sextant 3 and Sextant 5. TheLHC re-start resulted in a classification of all machine areas as Supervised Radiation Area. Consequently,no operational dosimetry was required for the shutdown 2009/2010. The experimental caverns of1
EDMS # 1078667ATLAS, LHCb, ALICE and CMS were classified as Supervised Areas. After performing detailedmeasurements the service areas UX85A, PX24 could be classified as Non-designated Area for theduration of the shutdown 2009/2010. As in the past, the DIMRs (Dossier d’Intervention en MilieuRadioactif) were used for maintenance activities in Controlled Radiation Areas of the SPS complex.At ISOLDE, the first phase of a waste preconditioning campaign of spent isotope productiontargets has been terminated. All non-actinide targets with acceptable ambient dose rate levels have beendismantled and conditioned in different waste streams. The dismantling of targets with higher ambientdose rates and of actinide targets, containing high concentrations of alpha-emitters, awaits theconstruction of a shielded hot-cell with manipulators.Radioactive waste coming from CERN installations, laboratories and experiments is delivered tothe conditioning centre or interim storage for radioactive waste managed by the DGS/RP Group. In 2009,118.5 m3 of radioactive waste was collected. The collected waste mainly consists of solid components(steel, aluminium, cables, etc.). The treatment of contaminated waste is systematically carried out in aglove box. A campaign in 2009 led to the elimination to PSI of about 600 radioactive sources. Thecollective dose to the RP personnel working on the treatment and storage of radioactive waste was 4.6mSv (average value over 5 and 6 persons) including the background.The CERN recuperation service area is checked daily for radioactive items, to exclude thepossibility of accidental release of material for sale. In 2009, 13 positive controls were detected, with amaximum contact dose rate of 10 µSv/h. Each case was the object of investigations and correctivemeasures.The development of the Jeremy code for the characterization of radioactive waste is now almostcomplete. It is being used for the characterization of waste from SPS, to be eliminated to the French finalrepositories in 2010.The Radiation Protection group provides a range of services to other groups and departments atCERN that include the shipping of radioactive material, gamma spectrometry of samples, theadministration and supply of radioactive test sources, the management and control of basic nuclearmaterial (MNB) submitted to the safeguard of IAEA via the Swiss and French authorities. Since 2003most of the MNB remaining at CERN are located on the Meyrin site. The annual joint inspection of theIAEA and Swiss authorities from the BFE, which took place in March 2009, found storing and bookkeeping in order.The RP group maintains a stock of 553 radioactive sources for a total activity of 5.563 TBq. Thegroup is in charge of the purchase, loan, registration in the database and control of the sources. Theannual inventory was transmitted to the OFSP (the Swiss Federal Office of Health) in November 2009:the inventory contained 553 sources for a total activity of 5.563 TBq.Support is provided to the CERN Logistics Group (FI/LS) for shipping radioactive materials byair, road and sea. In 2009, 56 radioactive packages were shipped from CERN. Of these, 22 were« Excepted Packages » (UN 2910 or UN 2911), 5 were UN 2915, 2 were UN 2912, 2 were UN 2809, 11were exempted, 4 were non-restricted and 10 were « Non radioactive » according to the Swiss ORaP. Thedefinition of procedures for the intersite (Prevessin - Meyrin) transport of radioactive material was part ofthe negotiation of the tripartite agreement amongst CERN, France and Switzerland.In 2009 the gamma spectrometry laboratory performed a total of 925 measurements, mainly forthe RP survey sections.2
EDMS # 1078667DGS-RP: RADIATION PROTECTION GROUP ORGANISATIONAL CHART 2009Group Leader:Deputy Group Leader:Secretary:D. Forkel-WirthL. UlriciJ. MaddenM. SilariLHC ( experiments)SPS ( experiments)CNGS, High Level DosimetryInjectors and DosimetryPS Accelerator Complex( experiments),Dosimetry Service, CalibrationRadioactive Waste ManagementInstrumentation, LogisticsDG-SCR-SLS. RoeslerDG-SCR-IDT. OttoDG-SCR-RWL. UlriciDG-SCR-ILD. PerrinD. AlbertoI. BrunnerAccelerator Radiation ProtectionA. DorsivalG. DumontS. GatardV. TromelM. WidorskiWaste ManagementY. AlgoetA. DayC. JouveR. MichaudM. MagistrisF. MalacridaM. PangalloN. RoussetN. ConanA. HervéA. HessT. SchmittlerC. TheisC. TromelHeinz VinckeHelmut VinckeDosimetryP. CarbonezS. MassonnetK. RozehnalSpectroscopy and TransportY. DonjouxSourcesI. FloretDoctoral StudentsL. JaegerhoferC. UrschelerTechnical StudentsM. KaracsonFellowsC. ArdorisioR. FroeschlH. RichterJ. Trummer
EDMS # 10786671 Environmental impact and public exposurePavol Vojtyla and Dietlinde Wittekind1.1 IntroductionOperation of accelerators leads to generation of radiation, which may penetrate theenvironment. In addition radioactive substances are produced, which may be transported into theenvironment with fluids such as ventilation air or discharged water.The regulations applicable to radiation emissions and releases of radioactive substances intothe environment are laid down in the CERN Code F Radiation Protection (1). "The effective dosereceived in any consecutive 12-month period by persons [belonging to CERN personnel] notoccupationally exposed must not exceed 1 mSv The effective dose resulting from CERN's activitiesreceived by any person living or working outside the site boundaries must not exceed 0.3 mSv peryear. The limit includes both external and internal exposure, the latter resulting from an intake ofradioactive releases. The ambient dose equivalent caused by ionizing radiation emitted by CERN at orbeyond its site boundaries must not exceed 1 mSv per year." (1)To prove the compliance with the above-mentioned regulations, the Organization carries out aradiological environmental monitoring programme that consists of: monitoring of stray radiation around accelerators and experimental areas, including places on theCERN sites accessible by the general public, at fences, and outside close to CERN premises.Some monitoring stations are placed far from any source of radiation to measure the naturalbackground in the region; monitoring of radioactivity in air and water released from the facilities on the CERN sites andevaluation of the activity of radioactive substances released into the environment on a monthlybasis; measurements of activity densities (2) in various environmental compartments at places, which arelikely to be influenced by the releases of radioactive substances, and at reference places. This partof the programme is aimed at verifying that immission limits have not been exceeded and that theenvironmental dispersion models in use do not underestimate; evaluation of the radiological impact of the stray radiation and releases of radioactive substanceson the population living in the vicinity of the Organization. This includes calculations of theeffective doses to reference groups of the population according to widely accepted environmentaldispersion models.1.2 Monitoring programme in 2009The CERN environmental monitoring programme covered the CERN Meyrin and Prévessinsites, the seven sites (BA1 BA7) along the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) main ring, including theCERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS) site BA4, the testing area SM18, and the nine Large HadronCollider (LHC) sites. The LHC was operated only at the end of 2009 and received so small number ofprotons that neither releases of radionuclides nor emission of stray radiation were measurable.An outline programme listing the instruments and methods used for measuring radioactivity issummarized in Tables 1.1 and 1.2. The distribution of the environmental monitors and sampling placeson the CERN Meyrin site and in its vicinity, and on the CERN Prévessin site is shown in Figures 1.1and 1.2, respectively. The location of the monitors and sampling places outside the two main CERNsites is presented in Figure 1.3.(1)Safety Code F Rev., Radiation Protection, CERN (2006).Terminology according to the ICRU Report 65, Quantities, Units and Terms In Radioecology, Journal of theICRU, Vol. 1 (2001).(2)4
EDMS # 1078667Table 1.1 Environmental monitoring programme on the CERN sites emissions and effluents.Monitored subjectRadioactivity1.1 Air/aerosolTotal beta, total alphaGamma1.2 Air/gasTotal beta2.Release (surface)waterTotal gammaDissolved total betaGammaTritium*)**)***)Type and frequency of sampling andmeasurementsGlass-fibre filters changed 2 /month;large-area proportional counterHPGe gamma spectrometryContinuous;differential ionization chamberPIPS silicon detectorsContinuous;NaI(Tl) crystal immersed in water tank**Continual water sampling for the whole month;large-area proportional counterHPGe gamma spectrometryliquid scintillation countingOperated only during flushing of the target areas TDC2 and TCC2.NaI(Tl) gamma spectra are saved at the stations PMW901–980.Instantaneous manual sampling.5Number ofpoints288201315LocationsPMV11, 31, 43, 44, 51, 170, 171,172, 173, 174, 200, 400, 801, 802*,901, 911, 912, 913, 914, 922, 923,903, 905, 958, 959, 960, 907, 982PMVG11, 31, 51, 170, 172, 173, 174,801PMVG43, 44, 171, 200, 400, 802*,901, 911, 912, 913, 914, 922, 923,903, 905, 958, 959, 960, 907, 982PMW21, 101, 102, 103, 901, 910,920, 930, 940, 950, 960, 970, 980PMWS21, 62, 101, 102, 103, 104***,901, 910, 920, 930, 940, 950, 960,970, 980
EDMS # 1078667Table 1.2 Environmental monitoring programme on the CERN sites and in the CERN environment stray radiation and environmental samples.Monitored subject1.Radiation,radioactivityStray radiationGamma dose rateNeutron dose rate2.Air/aerosolTotal beta, total alphaGamma3.Grass, soilTotal beta in soilGamma in g. and s.4.PrecipitationTotal betaGammaTritium5.6.7.Rivers/water,sediment,moss (bryophytes)Groundwater and tapwaterAgriculturalproductsTotal beta in w. and s.Gamma in w., s. and m.Tritium in waterTotal betaGammaTritiumGammaType and frequency of sampling andmeasurementsContinuous;argon-filled ionization chambermoderated BF3 counter (rem-counter)Glass-fibre filters changed 2 /month;large-area proportional counterHPGe gamma spectrometryOnce per year;large-area proportional counterHPGe gamma spectrometrySampling time: 1 month, funnel: 1 m2;large-area proportional counterHPGe gamma spectrometryliquid scintillation countingOnce per year;large-area proportional counterHPGe gamma spectrometryliquid scintillation countingOnce per year;large-area proportional counterHPGe gamma spectrometryliquid scintillation countingOnce per year at harvest time;HPGe gamma spectrometry6Number ofpoints50Locations32 near fences or outside18 on the sites12PSA42, 71, 100, 126, 805, 821, 832, 911,914, 951, 954PSA973 (gamma only)4GR(SO)-nTOF, MSW, P801, VG2Roof of Bldg. 24 (PSP-M)Roof of Bldg. 865 SPS (PSP-P)6RW(S, M)-LL1, LL2, LL3, LL4, NA, VE5 2GW-201, BO, FL, GR, PGTW-M, PSurrounding fields
Figure 1.1 Location of monitoring stations and sampling places on the CERN Meyrin site, at BA6, BA7, PA1 and SM18.EDMS # 10786677
EDMS # 1078667Figure 1.2 Location of monitoring stations and sampling places on the CERN Prévessin site.8
EDMS # 1078667Figure 1.3 Location of monitoring stations and sampling places outside the two CERN main sites.Legend to Figures 1.1 1.3GR(SO) Grass (soil) sampling placeGWGroundwater sampling placePMSStray radiation monitoring stationPMVVentilation monitoring stationPMWRelease water monitoring stationRW(M,S)PSAPSPTWWI(see text for other acronyms)9River water (moss, sediment) sampling placeEnvironmental aerosol samplerPrecipitation sampling stationTap water sampling placeCollecting place for wine grapes
EDMS # 10786671.2.1 Stray radiationA stray radiation monitoring station (PMS in Figures 1.1–1.3) consists of an argon-filledpressurised ionization chamber and a rem-counter. The ionization chamber serves for monitoring ofthe dose rate from energetic photons and penetrating charged particles such as muons, whilst the remcounter measures the neutron dose rate. Monitors of both types are calibrated for the ambient doseequivalent H*(10). Stray radiation monitoring stations are located at the boundaries or inside theCERN sites where radiation surveys have indicated measurable radiation levels caused by theoperation of the various CERN facilities. Several stations are installed at some distance from CERNpremises and far from any sources of ionizing radiation.1.2.2 Radioactive substances in released airThe activity of radioactive substances in discharged air (emissions) is monitored in ventilationmonitoring stations (PMV in Figures 1.1 1.3) that are installed at all air extraction points from whichsuch substances are likely to be released. These comprise the main accelerator rings of the ProtonSynchrotron (PS), Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), Large Hadron Collider (LHC), beam transfertunnels, target areas and some experimental areas.Radioactive gases produced in air during the operation of high-energy accelerators are mainlyshort-lived positron-emitting radionuclides 11C, 13N, 14O, and 15O, and the short-lived β emitter 41Ar.Their total activity densities are measured continuously by either flow-through differential ionizationchambers or large-area silicon β detectors installed in exhaust sampling lines. Differential ionizationchambers are installed in older stations whilst large-area silicon β detectors are used in the recentmonitoring stations, namely in the CNGS (PMV43 and 44), all LHC stations (PMV9xx), the SPS-toLHC transfer tunnels TI-2 and TI-8 (PMV200 and 400), the flush monitoring station of the target areasTDC2 and TCC2 (PMV802), and in the n-TOF ventilation station PMV171.The
CERN-DGS-2010-001-RP . 2 July 2010 . RADIATION PROTECTION GROUP . ANNUAL REPORT 2009 . D. Forkel-Wirth, M. Silari (Editors) GENEVA . 2010 . i RP ANNUAL REPORT 2009 Executive Summary 1 RP Group organisational chart 3 1 Environmental impact and public exposure 4 1.1 Introduction 4 1.2 Monitoring program in 2009 4 1.2.1 Stray radiation 10 . 1.2.2 Radioactive substances in released air 10 . 1.2.3 .
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