Potential radiation dose to man from recycle of metals reclaimed from a decommissioned nuclear power plant

A generic methodology is presented for estimating potential radiation doses to man from recycling radioactively contaminated scrap metals that may be reclaimed from decommissioned nuclear facilities. The heart of the methodology is a set of tables of radionuclide-specific, radiation-dose factors that may be used to estimate doses to individuals and population groups from recycling any radioactively contaminated scrap metal. The dose factors are based on detailed radiological assessments of several options for recycling scrap metals. Assessments were made for each of 27 nuclides which might contaminate metals recovered from a decommissioned nuclear power plant. Each assessment was of a reference quantity of scrap metal that was assumed to contain a reference level of a potentially contaminative radionuclide. The radiological assessments are described, and the dose factors in assessments of many recyclable metals, for estimating critical-organ doses from the given dose factors that were derived for total-body exposures, and for ranking the radionuclides considered according to their relative potential for delivering radiation doses to man