Health physics surveillance during the installation of PIE related equipment in radioactive hot cell facility by man entry

The Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) of the fuel, blanket materials, control rods and structural materials of Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) is carried out in the hot cell of Radiometallurgy Lab (RML), IGCAR. The PIE of FBTR subassembly of varying burn up (from 25 GWd/t to 155 GWd/t) was successfully carried out in RML and the cells are in operation for more than 20 years. As the part of PIE test, irradiated fuel pin are sectioned in the region of interest, cut, prepared and mounted for metallographic examination. The replica of the cut section is taken, bagged out from cell through the glove box and then analyzed in optical microscope. The direct sample analysis gives a better image contrast to reveal the features as compared to replica. Hence it was decided to install an optical microscope inside the hot cell. This also reduces the man-rem on the metallographic examination of the irradiated material. It was also planned to set up a radial gamma scanning along with the existing axial gamma scanning system. This paper describes the Health Physics surveillance provided and the radiological issues like individual dose, collective dose accrued during the entire operation. It also discusses the dose control measures, ALARA principle adopted to keep the individual and the collective exposures minimum to the occupational workers