Performance of the EPD-N2 dosemeter for monitoring aircrew doses.

United States Air Force (USAF) aircrew fly at altitudes and for durations where doses from cosmic radiation are significant enough to warrant monitoring. This study evaluated a candidate radiological monitoring system for USAF aircrew, the Thermo Scientific electronic personnel dosemeter (EPD-N2). The evaluation consisted of characterising the device in a well-characterised radiation field at a European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) accelerator, and aboard an USAF aircraft. The performance of the EPDs was evaluated by comparison with accepted values for dose at the CERN facility, comparison with the value calculated by flight dose software and comparison with the value estimated by a tissue-equivalent proportional counter aboard the aircraft. This study recommends that a correction factor of 1/CF = 1/3.9 be applied to EPD-N2 measurements aboard aircraft flights. The uncertainty in this correction factor is 11.8 %.

Radiological assessment of petroleum pipe scale from pipe-rattling operations.

Petroleum pipe scale, consisting of concentrated inorganic solids such as barium sulfate, can deposit on the inside of down-hole pipes during the normal course of oil field pumping operations. A portion of this scale has been shown to contain naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), predominantly compounds of radium. When these pipes are removed from the well, there is a potential for radiation doses to the oil field workers handling the pipes, especially as the pipes are cleaned for reuse. A thorough sampling and measurement protocol was applied under a variety of weather conditions in an outdoor laboratory to obtain an accurate indication of the radiological and aerodynamic characteristics of scale release and dust dispersion during petroleum pipe scale removal from out-of-service pipes with a restored, historically relevant outdoor pipe-cleaning machine. Exposure rate data were also obtained for both the pre-cleaned pipes, and the general area inhabited by workers during the descaling operation. Four radiation exposure pathways were investigated: inhalation of pipe scale dust generated during pipe rattling, incidental ingestion of the pipe scale dust, external exposure from uncleaned pipes, and external exposure from pipe scale dispersed on the ground. Pipes from three oil fields were rattled to collect as much industry-representative data as possible. The Ra specific activity of the pipe scale ranged from 33.6 +/- 0.4 to 65.5 +/- 0.7 Bq g, depending on the formation. A median atmospheric dust loading of 0.13 mg m was measured in the operator breathing zone. The respirable fraction was observed to be about 42% to 46%. Based on cleaning 20 pipes per day,250 d per year on average, annual committed effective doses for the operator and helper ranged from 0.11 mSv (11 mrem) to 0.45 mSv(45 mrem) for inhalation and from 19 microSv (1.9 mrem) to 97 microSv (9.7 mrem) for incidental ingestion. Worker annual external dose from the pipe racks ranged from 0 to 0.28 mSv (28 mrem). In the deposition experiment, more than 99% by weight of the deposited scale fell within 2 m of the machine centerline, the vast majority of which was in the downwind direction. The dose from this deposited material dominated the worker dose estimates. The annual external dose from dispersed material was estimated to be 2.8 mSv (280 mrem) for the operator and 4.1 mSv (410 mrem) for the helper.