Regulatory Guide 4.13

Performance, Testing, and Procedural Specifications for Thermoluminescence Dosimetry: Environmental Applications

ML13350A201
Person / Time
Issue date:	11/30/1976
From:	Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
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RG-4.013
Download: ML13350A201 (2)

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY

COMMISSION

November 1976 REGULATORY

GUIDE OFFICE OF STANDARDS

DEVELOPMENT

REGULATORY

GUIDE 4.13 PERFORMANCE, TESTING, AND PROCEDURAL

SPECIFICATIONS

FOR THERMOLUMINESCENCE

DOSIMETRY:

ENVIRONMENTAL

APPLICATIONS

A. INTRODUCTION

Section 20.105, "Permissible levels of radiation in unrestricted areas." of 10 CFR Part 20. "Standards for Protection Against Radiation." provides limits on levels of radiation in unrestricted areas resulting from possession, use. or transfer or NRC-licensed radioac-tive material.

Section 20.106, "Radioactivity in ef-fluents to unrestricted areas," of 10 CFR Part 20 prohibits a licensee from releasing to an unrestricted area radioactive materials in concentrations that ex-ceed limits specified in 10 CFR Part 20 except as otherwise authorized in a license issued by the Com-mission. Section 20.201. "Surveys." of 10 CFR Part result of normal operations.

including anticipated operational occurrences, and .s 'the result of postulated accidents."hernioluninescence dcs!m'§krp (TlD) is widely used to measure levels o ~fý4X`d-gnnia radiation in the environs of NRC41icenkd nui61iear facilities.

This guide provides miniimuni acceptable performance criteria for TLD.sysirns used for this purpose. It also provides proeederes f-caibration, field application.

and reporting,-\'" ;\ ,

l. DISCUSSION

20 further requires that a licensee conduct surveys as, Wikjbg Gioup 9 of the Health Physics Society may be necessary to comply with the regulations of Z',`. nd,4.rdiý1Committee for American National Stan-10 CFR Part 20 including, when appropriate, the ain Committee (ANSI) N13 on Radiation measurement of levels of radiation.

,. .Plection has prepared a standard that specifies acceptable performance of TLDs used for Section IV.B of Appendix I, "Numerical G1.4 s mt'asurements:

outlines methods to for Design Objectives and Limiting Cor04ti'iohs gy test for compliance:

and provides procedures for Operation to Meet the Criterion

'As A.0ow A Is calibration, field application, and reporting.

This Reasonably Achievable'

for Radioactivea eri4l in standard was prepared under the direction of the Light-Water-Cooled Nuclear Power Re'tGOP"Ef- Health Physics Society Standards Committee and fluents." to 10 CFR Part 50, "Licensing of Produc- was processed and approved for submittal to ANSI tion and Utilization requires that by the American National Standards Committee on licensees establish appr fi- surveillance and Radiation Protection.

NI1. It was subsequently ap-monitoring programs to on measurable proved and designated N545-1975 by the ANSI levels of radiation a io i.e materi,fls in the en- Board of Standards Review on August 20. 1975.1 vironment, General i *iW ion 64, "Monitoring radioactivit e es, of' Appendix A, "General Design Crite or Nuclear Power Plants," to 10 CFR Part 50 uires that nuclear power plant designs provide means for monitoring the plant en-virons for radioactivity that may be released as the The specification of performance criteria of ther-moluminescence dosimetry and the verification of the actual performance require appropriate statistical

'ANSI N545-1975, "P'erfornmance.

Testing. and Procedural Spcificalion Fir Th,:rlnoluminesrencrt:

Dou.imetry (Envirdnniciltal Applications)'" moly he (iblaind From the Americain Naliontal Standards Inslilttul.

1430 Bro:dway, New York. New Yoirk t(X)IX.USNRC REGULATORY

GUIDES Comments should be sent to the Secretary of the Commission.

U.S. Nuclea, Regulatory Guides are issued to describe and make available to the public ARgulatoty Commission.

Washington.

0 C 2055, Attention Docketlrg and Asguatoy Gudearei~sud t decrib An mae anitate o th pul'c Serivice Section methods acceptable to ihe. IRC staff of implementing sppcihic pe'-t.of ine S Se*tion Commission's regulations, to delineate techniques used by the staf.f i eyrelu 1he guide% are issued in the following ten broad divi.iolls sting specific problems or postulated accidents Ot to provide guidrnce to apphi cants. Regulatory Guides ate not substitutes tot regulations, and compliance I Power Reactors 6 Piuducls with them is not required Methods and solutions dliffelrent from those set on't in 2. Research and Test Reactors I Ttanspocietlnn the guides wilt be acceptable if they provide a basis lot the findings teqwus.te to 3 Fuels and Matetials Facilities

8 Uccupational Heallh the isr.ance or conlinuance ola permit or license by the Commission

4 EnvlronmentAlend Siling 9 Antitiust Review Comments and suggestions fot improvements in these guides ate encouraged

6 Matetials arid Plant Protection

10 General at all times, and guides will be revised, as appropriate, to accommodate com meits and to reflect new information or eopetience However. comnitnts on Copies of published guides may be obtained by written request indrcatirrg the this guide, io received within abuul two nmonths after its issuance, will be part divisions desired to the U S Nuclear Regulatory Conintlision.

Washingtonr.

0 f ticultaly useful in evaluatrng the need for art early revision 205. Attention ODrector.

Office of Standards Development concepts and techniqu,.-s.

Because w!de applicability is intended.

ANSI N545. 1975 as well as the provi-sions and clarifications given below in the regulatory position are confined to simple statistical concepts and prescribe no specific statistical techniques.

In fact. the implem-.-ntation of some specifications by rigorous statistical methods may prove difficult for some users of the guide. Therefore, good approx-imate statistical methods are acceptable.

No specific criteria for good approximation are prescribed.

However. the user should judge whether the sample site is adequately large for the approxima- tion and w%+-ether the distribution of the measure-m'ents is sutfiiently close to that assumed in the analysis.

Pr(.blems relating to underlying distribu-tions can he 'tvoided by the use of nonparametric methods Some .-f the specifications which are stated in terms of standard deviations can be reformulated in nearly equivalent specifications for tolerance limits for %%hich simple nonparametric methods are available.

Such reformulations are also acceptable.

A. [Iaid: and WV. J. Conover' are useful reference sources for parametric and nonparametric methods.respectively.

If every TLD i; individually calibrated, the popula-tion parameters for certain errors can be computed directly, and statistical inference is not needed for specifications relating to these errors.C. REGULATORY

POSITION The requirements and recommendations for per-formance specifications.

testing procedures.

calibra-tion procedures, field procedures, and reporting procedures that are included in ANSI N545-1975 are generally acceptable to the NRC staff as the basis for using thermoluminescence dosimetry for the measurement of X and gamma: radiation in the en-virons of NRC-licensed facilitir:.-

subject to the fol-lowing additional provisiu.is

J qualificati~ms.

1. Section 3. -IPerforma..,e Specifications." of ANSI N 545-1975 should bt' cupplemented by the fol-lowing statement: "Each pt rformance specification shall be verified at the 95% confidence level." A. [laid. Stati.;tical "lhior'v 'ith Eiginierint

..lpplicatimts.

John k\\ e% & sons. Inc.. 1t52.'\%. J. (d'ono.er.

Iracci .\'operait,'tri .ttijis. John Wiley &sn.qo, Inc.. I19T1.2. Instead of Section 3.1 of ANSI N545-1975, the following should be used: "The performance of the TLD system shall be determined under laboratory conditions and in a known radiation field with an ex-posure equal to that resulting from an exposure rate of 10 p R/hr during the field cycle. Ninety-five per-cent of the measurements shall fall within 10% of the known exposure." 3. Instead of Section 3.3 of ANSI N545-1975, the following should be used: "Ninety-five percent of the final value-:- (after all appropriate corrections to the measurements are applied, including those for errors expect.d under field conditions)

shall differ from the correct value by less than 30% of the correct value." 4. Instead of Section 4.3.1 of ANSI N545-1975.

the folLwing should be used: "Uniformity shall be determined by giving TLDs from the same batch an exposure equal to that resulting from an exposure rate of 10 a R/hr during the field cycle. The response obtained shall have a relative standard deviation (coefficient of variation)

of less than 7.5%." 5. Instead of Section 4.3.2 of ANSI N545-1975, the following should be used: "Reproducibility shall be determined by givinL- one TLD repeated exposures equal to that resulting from an exposure rate of 10 p R/hr during the field cycle. The responses shall have a relative standard deviation (coefficient of variation)

of less than 3.0%."-

D. IMPLEMENTATION

The purpose of this section is to provide inrorma-tion to applicants and licensees regarding the staffs plans for utilizing this regulatory guide.Except in those cases in which the applicant proposes an acceptable alternative method for com-plying with specified portions of the Commission's regulations, the method described herein will be used in the evaluation of operating license applications docketed after July 15, 1977.If an applicant wishes to use this regulatory guide in developing submittals for applications docketed on or before July 15. 1977, the pertinent portions of the application will be evaluated on the basis of this guide.4.13-2