Safety assessment
Instructions
Radiation Safety Report
The executives at Acme Manufacturing Co. were impressed by your first report, and they have asked you and BSCI to return for more work. BSCI has been contracted by Acme Manufacturing Co. to conduct a study to determine employee exposures to radiation. In addition, your company has been contracted to determine the effectiveness of engineering controls, including shielding. After conducting a field assessment, prepare a written report for Bob Sanders (CSP) to present to the Board of Directors. During your field investigation, you find the following field observations:
Test Equipment and Repair Facility
The company has an on-site test equipment and repair facility. Much of the test equipment contains a radiation source. Normal practice inside the facility is to limit the time of exposure of employees working on this equipment as a method of control. However, the company is looking at the possibility of installing lead shields or increasing the distance from the source, thus increasing employee time working on equipment. Based on the following information determine the employee’s exposure:
Location Employee Distance (Initial) Distance (Proposed) Intensity (Initial) Intensity at proposed distance
Bench #3 Rita Ray D’Ashun 0.5 ft. 2 ft. 110 mrem/h Unknown
Bench #5 Robert Long 1 ft. 3 ft. 137 mrem/h Unknown
Bench #6 Paul Row 0.75 ft. 1.5 ft. 102 mrem/h Unknown
Based on this information, determine the employee’s actual exposure rate to the radiation source. Show your work (either in the report or as an appendix).
The second option under consideration is to install lead shields in order to reduce the employee’s dose rate. Using the information provided in the table above, determine the intensity at the same distances listed above if a 5 cm lead shield was placed between the source and the detector. [µ for lead, (662 keV gamma ray) = 1.23 cm-¹]
Radar Testing Facility
As part of your assessment, you have been asked to evaluate the estimated power density levels for both near and far fields. When there is no gain listed in the problem, always defer to a gain of 10. Recall that 1 watt = 1,000,000 µW(microwatts). You have conducted your assessment and measurements with the following data:
Location Diameter (cm) Antenna Power (watts) Distance (r) from Antenna (cm) Power Density (Near Field) (µW/cm²) Power Density (Far Field) (µW/cm²)
Radar Unit #1 48 in 50,000 150 ft.
Radar Unit #2 26 cm 110,000 150 ft.
Laser Laboratory
Acme Manufacturing is currently considering constructing a laser laboratory, which will contain Class III, IIIA, and IIIB lasers. Identify the safety control measures that the client must consider before proceeding to the design phase of the project.
Respond to the details in each section, and format your report in APA style. Include at least each of the following in your report for this unit:
Introduction-briefly describe why the studies were performed (why you started the study).
Report details-briefly discuss the details of the scenario (what you found from the study).
Conclusions and recommendations-briefly describe your recommendations based on your findings (what you recommend to resolve any deficiencies).
Appendix-Measurements and calculations (show your work).
