Modeling of the collective exposure of workers to the external irradiation and to radon

During the course of our activities in assisting mining companies, it was seen that the monitoring results for personnel from a large number of uranium mines differ greatly from one mine to another. One of our objectives has been to discover the origin of these differences. It is evident that they are largely due to variations in the geological context, to mining methods, and to the organization of the work; but we also found that the rigor with which measures are implemented to prevent the personnel from being exposed to radiations is also a cause. It is necessary to establish some criteria, while taking into consideration the specific conditions for each mine, in order to determine whether a mining company is adequately implementing radiation protection procedures. This need led us to attempt a modelization of the occupational exposures of uranium miners; the preliminary phase is presented here