And then there is the benefit of comparing ED to your Dose of Record dosimeter.

-----------------------------------
Sander C. Perle
President
Mirion Technologies
Dosimetry Services Division
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

+1 (949) 296-2306 (Office)
+1 (949) 296-1130 (Fax)

Mirion Technologies: http://www.mirion.com/
"Protecting people, property and the environment"

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
[email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 12:16 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Powernet: Tracking electronic dosimeter dose to tenths?

Palo Verde displays electronic dosimeter dose in tenths of mrem.

For us there are some ALARA benefit for displaying the 1/10 of a mrem.  First, 
we use the 1/10 of a mrem chirp feature; therefore, the worker has an audible 
and visual indication of accumulated dose.  Secondly, during the Sentinel 
Access Control system log out radworkers get a visual display of total dose (in 
tenths) plus maximum dose rate.  Without the tenth display, if they get 4/10s 
of a mrem, the dosimeter will display 0 mrem; however, if the max rate field is 
populated, e.g., 10 mR/hr, they think that the small fraction of dose received 
is being ignored regardless of the fact that the system will truncate it and 
report a zero.  With the tenths on, they will see 0.4 mrem for the entry.

This may be more of a PR issue rather than an ALARA one, but the workers like 
the fidelity between recorded and indicated dose.  Note, when you use the 
tenths display the dose alarm will not occur until the entire value is reached. 
 For example, if the dose alarm is set to 25 mrem and you use tenths, a display 
of 24.9 will not give you a dose alarm.  It will not alarm until it gets to 
25.0 mrem.  Without the tenths display, when the dose reaches 24.5 the 
displayed value will be 25 mrem (you would still have to accumulate the other 
0.5 mrem to reach the alarm), but if a worker is looking at their dose and they 
see 25, they may question the ED operation.

Seth

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
[email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 11:55 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Powernet: Tracking electronic dosimeter dose to tenths?

San Onofre currently tracks electronic dosimeter dose to integer mrem (a 
deliberate decision when we implemented the MGPI DMC-2000S dosimeters).  We 
understand that some plants track dose to tenths of an mrem.  Reportedly, there 
is an ALARA benefit for this additional precision.  I have two questions:

How many plants/fleets are tracking ED dose to tenths of a mrem?

How does such precision impact ALARA performance?  In other words, what worker 
behaviors change when a worker sees 4.4 mrem instead of 4, or 4.7 mrem instead 
of 5?

Thanks and Happy Holidays from sunny (today) California, Eric


Eric M. Goldin, CHP
Southern California Edison
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> 
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