The adoption of the new ICRU dose equivalent operational quantities within the Central Electricity Generating Board of the United Kingdom

The Weights and Measures-Units of Measurements Regulations 1980 (Statutory Instrument 1980 No. 1070), made under the European Communities Act 1972(b) and in compliance with the EEC Directive 80/181/EEC required that from 1986, member states adopt SI units for radiological measurements. The CEGB which is responsible for the calibration of the radiation monitoring equipment used at its 12 nuclear power stations, as well as for those used at the 2 nuclear stations of the South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB), implemented a programme to convert this equipment to display measurement results in SI units only. This report gives details of the SI conversion programme and discusses some of the problems that arose from introducing SI units and the new ICRU 39 quantities into a large organisation. Information is also given on the energy response characteristics of current designs of instruments to the new quantities. The results are compared with the requirements of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards for dose equivalent monitoring equipment and for personal electronic dose-meters. (author)