Standing up the National Ignition Facility radiation protection program.

Operation of the NIF requires a large and varied number of routine and infrequent activities involving contaminated and radioactive systems, both in servicing online equipment and offline refurbishment of components. Routine radiological operations include up to several dozen entries into contaminated systems per day, multiple laboratories refurbishing radiologically impacted parts, handling of tens of curies of tritium, and (eventually) tens of workers spending most of their day working in radiation areas and handling moderately activated parts. Prior to the introduction of radioactive materials and neutron producing experiments (capable of causing activation), very few of the operating staff had any radiological qualifications or experience. To support the full NIF operating program, over 600 radiological workers needed to be trained, and a functional and large-scale radiological protection program needed to be put in place. It quickly became evident that there was a need to supplement the LLNL site radiological protection staff with additional radiological controls technicians and a radiological protection staff within NIF operations to manage day-to-day activities. This paper discusses the approach taken to stand up the radiological protection program and some lessons learned.

Experiences managing radioactive material at the National Ignition Facility.

The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the world's largest and most energetic laser system for inertial confinement fusion and experiments studying high energy density science. Many experiments performed at the National Ignition Facility involve radioactive materials; these may take the form of tritium and small quantities of depleted uranium used in targets, activation products created by neutron-producing fusion experiments, and fission products produced by the fast fissioning of the depleted uranium. While planning for the introduction of radioactive material, it was recognized that some of the standard institutional processes would need to be customized to accommodate aspects of NIF operations, such as surface contamination limits, radiological postings, airborne tritium monitoring protocols, and personnel protective equipment. These customizations were overlaid onto existing work practices to accommodate the new hazard of radioactive materials. This paper will discuss preparations that were made prior to the introduction of radioactive material, the types of radiological work activities performed, and the hazards and controls encountered. Updates to processes based on actual monitoring results are also discussed.