ML19283B693
| ML19283B693 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 02/13/1979 |
| From: | Chilk S NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY) |
| To: | |
| References | |
| RULE-PR-19, RULE-PR-20 NUDOCS 7903060614 | |
| Download: ML19283B693 (14) | |
Text
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NEC PUBLIC DOCUMENT ROOM Li-NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[10 CFR Parts 19 and 20]
NOTICES, INSTRUCTIONS AND REPORTS TO WORKERS; INSPECTION STANDARDS FOR PROTECTION AGAINST RADIATION AGENCY:
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ACTION:
Proposed Rule
SUMMARY
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing amendments to its regulations that would eliminate the accumulated dose averaging formula, 5(N-18), and the associated Form NRC-4 exposure history, and impose annual dose-limiting standards while retaining quarterly standards.
Related amendments would express, in terms of the new annual standards, the standard for dose to minors, the requirements for the provision of personnel monitoring equipment, and the requirements for control of total dose to all workers including transient and moonlighting workers.
DATES:
Comment period expires April 23
, 1979.
ADDRESSES:
(1) Written comments should be submitted to the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555, Attention:
Docketing and Service Branch.
79030606/ f 1
(2)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mr. Robert E. Alexander, Office of Standards Development, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Com-mission, Washington, D.C. 20555 (phone 301-443-5975).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
The Commisson's basic radiation dose-limiting.tandards for workers are set forth in 10 CFR Part 20.
The current standards for whole body exposure of adult workers are:
(1) 1.25 rems per calendar quarter, or (2) 3 rems per calendar quarter provided that the lifetime accumulated dose does not exceed 5(N-18) rems, where N is the age of the individual in years.
These standards were based on recommendations of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), the Inter-national Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), and guidance for Federal agencies issued by the former Federal Radiation Council (FRC, the function of which is now incorporated into the Environ-mental Stection Acency).
The present Commission action is based on an assessment of the n'eed for the 5(N-18) dose-averaging formula which allows a worker to receive up to 12 rems per year.
The assessment is being performed because of the desire of the Commission to reduce the risks of occu-pational radiation doses in Commission-licensed activities, the Commission's continuing systematic assessment of exposure patterns, 2
meem
and new recommendations of the International Commission on Radio-logical Protection which eliminate quarterly dose-limiting standards and the use of the 5(N-18) formula for controlling the allowable cumulative lifetime dose up to age N.
The Commission, taking into account recently published interpre-tations of epidemiological data and associated recommendations for lower standards, and also in response to petitions for rule making to lower the dose standards filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and by Dr. Rosalie Berte11, has determined that a hear-ing should be held on the adequacy of present occupational radiation dose-limiting standards.
This hearing will be the subject of a separate FEDERAL REGISTER notice.
It is tentatively scheduled to be held in the spring of 1979.
The Commission believes that the rule changes proposed in this notice have benefit from the standpoint of radiation protection for workers.
For example, deletion of the formula, 5(N-18), could have reduced the radiation dose of some 320 individuals who received more than 5 rems during 1977.
In addition, it could cause some licensees to take further action to reduce occupational doses.
For these reasons the Commission believes that these changes should be pro-posed for comment at this time, without waiting for the planned hearing.
Nevertheless,' comments on the desirability of including 3
these proposed rule changes within the scope of the planned hearing are specifically invited.
Specifically, the Commission is proposing to amend 6 20.101(b),
10 CFR Part 20, to delete the provision that a licensee may permit an individual worker to receive up to 3 rems per calendar quarter and 12 rems per year if the accumulated lifetime radiation dose does not exceed the 5(N-18) dose-averaging formula.
The ICRP (ICRP Publication 26, " Recommendations of the Inter-national Commission on Radiological Protection," January 17, 1977, Pergamon Press) has indicated that the 5(N-18) formula should no longer be used.
This formula was originally intended to be used only in special cases for which the additional dose could be justi-fied.
Data available to the Commission reveal that approximately 320 (less than 0.5%) of the individuals participating in NRC-licensed activities in 1977 received doses exceeding 5 rems and, therefore, required use of the dose-averaging formula.
Elimination of the use of the formula would have little effect on the collective (man-rem) dose, but the individual risk could be reduced for approxi-mately 320 people (1977 data).
The Commission is also proposing to amend 9 20.101 to establish annual (calendar year) standards for radiation dose.
These annual standards would have the same values as would apply over four calen-dar gearters under the existing 1.25 rems per quarter standard.
A c1 4
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definition of calendar year would be added to S 20.3.
Quarterly dose standards would be retained, but the standaci for the whole body would be changed from 1.25 to 3 rems, with no requirement for obtaining the individual's occupational dose history.
Some licen-sees occasionally need the flexibility provided by the 3 rems per calendar quarter standard in order to accomplish essential work involving high dose rates.
If this flexibility were removed, there could be a decirable effect in that new facilities and/or equipment might be designed to meet the lower dose standard.
However, it is very likely that existing licensees would use extra workers in order to accomplish essential work rather than backfitting engineering controls to reduce dose rates and working times.
Thus, the collec-tive dose would not be lowered and might be increased.
Informed members of the scientific community, as evidenced by ICRP recom-mendations, believe that, for annual doses on the order of 5 rems, there is little or no biological advantage, except for an embryo or fetus, in limiting the rate at which the dose is received.
From this viewpoint, no quarterly standards are needed in 10 CFR Part 20.
However, the Commission staff believes that quarterly standards with associated requirements for reporting doses that exceed those stan-dards are necessary as precautionary measures which give early indi-cation of possible undesirable situations and provide NRC the oppor-tunity to investigate those situations, if necessary to ensure that they are promptly corrected and that adequate measures are taken to preclude recurrence.
At the same time, the quarterly standard proposed, 5
i.e., 3 rems per calendar quarter whole body, is considered by the Commission to be adequately low for effective regulatory control when considered in conjunction with the other standards and controls set forth in the regulations.
Comments on the desirability of retain-ing quarterly dose-limiting standards are specifically invited.
In addition to the proposed amendments discussed above, several other sections of the regulations would be changed, primarily to accommodate the proposed annual dose-limiting standards.
1.
The undesignated center heading preceding SS 20.101 through 20.108 which now reads " Permissible Doses, Levels, and Concentrations" would be amended to read " Radiation Protection Standards Applicable to Doses, Levels and Concentrations" thus removing the word " permissible." The recommendations of the NCRP, ICRP, and FRC (EPA), as implemented in the NRC regulations, are not intended to imply that doses above the standard are unsafe and that doses below the standard are safe.
Consideration of the linear l
hypothesis indicates that some risk is associated with any dose of radiation, however small.
In view of this hypothesis the NRC places emphasis on the conc.ept of making all reasonable efforts to maintain radiation doses as low as is reasonably achievable.
However, it is essential to establish standards which are the basis for regulating I The linear hypothesis assumes that the biological effects of ionizing radiation delivered at low doses and low dose rates, can be conservatively predicted by linear extrapolation (to zero dose) of effects that have been observed following exposure at high doses and high dose rates.
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the affected industry.
The Commission believes that the proposed wording more clearly reflects the intent and philosophy of these sections of the regulations.
2.
On February 6, 1978, the Commission published in the FEDERAL REGISTER (43 FR 4865) proposed amendments to its regulations which would require licensees to control the total occupational dose received by their workers, rather than just the dose received from sources in their possession or control.
These amendments have not yet been published as effective rule changes.
Certain of the amend-ments in this notice would affect the same sections of the regulations that were involved in proposed amendments published February 6, 1978 (43 FR 4865).
As explained below, the Commission plans to proceed with its deliberations on the changes proposed in February 1978, and, if found to be warranted, to amend these sections again after a decision is made regarding the 5(N-18) formula.
The amendments proposed in February 1978 would delete the existing S 20.102(a) which contains introductory material regarding the determination of accumulated dose using the 5(N-18) formula.
This introductory mate-rial would have been added to S 20.102(b).
Paragraphs 20.102(b) and 20.102(c) would have remained unchanged otherwise.
A new $ 20.102(a) would have been added to require licensees to obtain information on the occupational dose received by an individual in the current calendar quarter from sources of radiation possessed or controlled by other persons.
The amendments proposed in February 1978, if made 7
effective, would not have affected licensees who use the 5(N-18) formula (except with respect to the use of moonlighters) because they already obtain each worker's radiation exposure history.
Elimination of the use of the 5(N-18) formula, as proposed in this present notice, would remove the need for obtaining the total occupational radiation exposure history, and would permit deletion from the regulations of SS 20.102(b) and 20.102(c).I The proposed provisions in S 20.102(a) published in February 1978 would be retained, but would be redesignated as S 20.102 (to delete reference to para-graph (a)), and would be changed to state the requirements in terms of both annual and quarterly standards.
Comparably, the new S 19.13(e),
10 CFR Part 19, proposed in February 1978 which would require licen-sees to provide at termination of employment or work assignment in the licensee's restricted areas, upon request of the individual worker, estimates of the dose received by the individual in the licensee's restricted area during the terminating quarter, would be changed to require provision of the dose data for the terminating quarter and year.
The effect of the rule would be unchanged for an individual working in a licensee's restricted area for less than calendar quarter (transient).
The period provided for the submission of comments on the pro-posed amendments published February 6, 1978, expired on April 7, I Deletion of the requirement for the history, if made effective, would not constitute authority to dispose of the Form NRC-4, or equivalent records that have been generated under the existing regulations.
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4 1978.
The Commission will proceed with consideration of the com-ments and other factors related to those amendments on their merits, and will not delay final determination of those amendments solely because of the involvement of several of the same sections of the regulations in the amendments being proposed at t..'s time.
The amendments proposed in this present action would not make substan-tive changes in the portions of the regulations already under con-sideration, but would express essentially the same standards in terms of annual standards, or percentage thereof, rather than in terms of quarterly standards.
3.
S ction 20.104, establishing the standards to be applicable to external doses to minors, would be amended only to express the quarterly standards in terms of a percentage of the adult annual standards.
The numerical value of the dose standard would remain unchanged.
The Commission does not wish to encourage the employment of minors in work involving potential for radiation dose.
The standards for minors would be quarterly pro-rating of the 0.5 rem per year recommended by NCRP and ICRP for individual members of the population.
4.
The requirements for the provision of personnel monitoring equipment currently specified in S 20.202, 10 CFR Part 20, apply if an individual worker is likely to receive a dose in excess of 25 per-cent of the quarterly standards now set forth in S 20.101(a).
Because of the proposed amendments to S 20.101(a) to specify annual 9
standards as well as a quarterly standard for the whole body that is more than one-fourth of the annual standard, and because there is no basis for relaxing personnel monitoring requirements, the require-ments would be specified as percentages of the proposed annual standards and would result in numerical values equal to or slightly lower than the existing requirements.
The Commission believes that the minor change would have negligible impact on the number of individuals for whom personnel monitoring is performed.
Pursuant to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, as amended, and section 553 of title 5 of the United States Code, notice is hereby given that adoption of the following amendments to 10 CFR Parts 19 and 20 is contemplated.
All interested persons who desire to submit written comments or suggestions for consideration in connection with the proposed amendments should send them to the Secretary of the Com-mission, Washington, D.C. 20555, Attention:
Docketing and Service Branch by April 23, 1979 Copies of the comments on the pro-posed amendments may be examined at the Commission's Public Document Room at 1717 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
1.
In a 19.13, 10 CFR Part 19, a new paragraph (e) is added to read as follows:
10
6 19.13 Notifications and reports to individuals.
x (e) At the request of a worker who is terminating employment with the licensee in work involving radiation dose, or of a worker who, while employed by another person, is terminating assignment to work involving radiation dose in the licensee's facility, each licensee shall provide to each such worker, or to the worker's designee, at termination, a written report regarding that worker's radiation dose during each specifically identi'ied calendar quarter of the terminating calendar year or fraction thereof, or provide an-estimate of those doses if the finally determined personnel monitoring results are not available at that time.
Estimated doses shall be clearly indicated as such.
2.
Section 20.3(a) of 10 CFR Part 20 is amended by adding immediately following paragraph (4) a new paragraph (4a) to read as follows:
S 20.3 Definitions.
(a) As used in this part:
x (4a) " Calendar year" means four consecutive calendar quarters starting with the calendar quarter vhich begins in January.
x x
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3.
The undesignated center heading preceding 6 20.101, 10 CFR Part 20, is amended to read " Radiation Protection Standards Appli-cable to Doses, Levels, and Concentrations."
4.
Section 20.101, 10 CFR Part 20, is revised to read as follows:
6 20.101 Radiation protection standards for individuals in restricted areas.
Except as provided in 6 20.104, no licensee shall possess, use, or transfer licensed material in such a manner as to cause any individual in a restricted area to receive in any period of one calendar quarter or one calendar year from radioactive material and other sources of radiation a total dose in excess of the standards specified in the following table:
Rems per Rems per Calendar Calendar Quarter Year 1.
Whole body, head and trunk; active 3
5 blood-forming organs; lens of eyes; or gonads 2.
Hands and forearms; feet and 18-3/4 75 ankles 3.
Skin of whole body 7-1/2 30 5.
Section 20.102, 10 CFR Part 20, is revised to read as follows:
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6 20.102 Determination of prior dose.
Each licensee shall require any individual, prior to first entry of the individual into the licensee's restricted area during each employment or work assignment under such circumstances that the individual will receive or is likely to receive in any period of one calendar quarter a dose in excess of 5 percent of the applicable annual standards specified in 6 20.101, to disclose in a written, signed statement, either, (a) that the individual had no prior dose during the current calendar year, or (b) the nature and amount of any dose which the individual may have received during each specifi-cally identified calendar quarter of the current calendar year fron.
sources of radiation possessed or controlle
~;y other persons.
Each licensee shall maintain records of such statements until the Commis-sion authorizes their disposition.
6.
In 6 20.104, 10 CFR Part 20, paragraph (a) is amended to read as follows:
6 20.104 Exposure of minors.
(a) No licensee shall possess, use or transfer licensed mate-rial in such a manner as to cause any individual within a restricted area who is under 18 years of age to receive in any period of one calendar quarter from radioactive material and other sources of 13
radiation a dose in excess of 2.5 percent of the annual standards specified in the table in 6 20.101.
a 7.
In S 20.202, 10 CFR Part 20, subparagraphs (a)(1) and (a)(2) are amended to read as follows:
9 20.202 Personnel monitoring.
(a) Each licensee shall supply appropriate personnel monitor-ing equipment to, and shall require the use of such equipment by:
(1)
Each individual 18 years of age or older who enters a restricted area under such circumstances that the individual receives, or is likely to receive, a dose in any calendar quarter in excess of 5 percent of the annual standards specified in S 20.101.
(2) Each individual under 18 years of age who enters a restricted area under such circumstances that the individual receives, or is likely to re:eive, a dose in any calendar quarter in excess of 1.25 percent of the annual standards specified in 6 20.101.
a a
(Sec. 161, Pub. Law 83-703, 68 Stat. 948 (42 U.S.C. 2201), Sec. 201 as amended, Pub. Law 93-438, 88 stat. 1242 (42 U.S.C. 5841)).
Dated at Washington, D. C.
this 13th day of February 1979.
For t a Nuclear e ;ulatory Commission.
J
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Samuelf J. Chilk Secretary o# the Commission 14