Radiation protection

This article presents the nuclear safety policy and the means dedicated to the radiation protection of the staff in the research centers of the French CEA (atomic energy commission). The ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) principle is applied in order to minimize radiation doses received by employees in basic nuclear installations (INB). The staff is divided into 2 categories: the first category is made up of workers that may present a risk of being contaminated or irradiated during their work, the other employees constitute the second category. The employees of the first category have 2 medical checkups a year. The organization of the radiation protection in 3 CEA's installations is presented: the experimental pool reactor Osiris, the laboratory of study and fabrication of advanced nuclear fuels (LEFCA) and ICPE 312 which is in charge of dismantling contaminated great size objects coming from hot cells or other INB. The technological progress of dosimetry allows the use of dosimeters fitted with alarms and able to integrate the total radiation doses in real time. (A.C.)