Study of decommissioning organization and target doses for management of radiation exposure to workers at nuclear facilities

During decommissioning of a nuclear facility, the radiation dose to workers should be managed not to exceed a certain level. The objective of this study was to review decommissioning organization and target doses for management of radiation exposure to workers at nuclear facilities. The review was performed for the 7 nuclear facilities in the US, including commercial nuclear power plants, research and experimental reactor, and other nuclear facilities. For all the facilities, decommissioning organizations were established and given in decommissioning activities report and decommissioning plan. Certain department and associated supervisors were in charge of radiation protection of workers. They had an authority to stop radiation works not to exceed a certain level. In 10 CFR 20, only dose limits not target doses are given. Therefore, each facility set its own target doses and applied it during the facility decommission. The target doses were set 50⁓100% (25⁓50 mSv·year^-1) level of dose limits for the commercial nuclear power plants and 10⁓50% (5⁓25 mSv·year^-1) level of dose limits for the research and experimental nuclear plant and other nuclear facilities. It is suggested that 70⁓90% (14⁓18 mSv·year^-1) level of dose limits is appropriate for near future decommissioning of a commercial nuclear power plant considering target doses for previous decommission of nuclear facilities in other country and management dose limits set for operational nuclear power plants in Korea