Radiation protection requirements for maintenance of nuclear power plants with a light-water reactor. Provisions to be made during plant design and operation

Radiation protection of personnel engaged in maintenance work in nuclear power facilities is a challenging task both for plant licensees and for regulatory authorities. The increase of maintenance and backfitting work due to the ageing of plants is combined with increasing occupational exposures especially encountered in inspection, servicing and repair work. For this reason the assessment of doses to maintenance personnel is an important instrument for the judgement of precautionary measures to be taken during the pre-operational and operational stages of nuclear power plants. In order to ensure the appropriateness of radiation protection measures for maintenance work in the Federal Republic of Germany, the requirements for radiation protection during planning and operation of light-water reactor power plants are dealt with in guidelines of the Federal Minister of the Interior. Radiation protection guidelines have been arrived at on the basis of results of collective dose assessments in the nuclear power facilities of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the paper deals with these guidelines, which ensure that occupational radiation exposures of maintenance workers remain as low as reasonably achievable. (author)