Event notification Exposure incident of a worker rated level 2 on the INES – CEA Grenoble

On 3r^d September 2013, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and one of its outside contractors, D&S, notified ASN of an exposure incident of a worker from D&S.

The exposure occurred on 23rd August 2013 during low level waste and rubble sorting operation at the Laboratory of Activated Material Analysis (LAMA), under decommissioning.

Within the next few days, ASN will conduct inspections of D&S and CEA in order to determine the circumstances of the event, to check the operation conditions and to investigate the causes of this event.

The results of the analysis on the passive dosimeter¹ of the worker, which was carried out by IRSN, indicated a value exceeding one of the regulatory limits².

The worker is subject to a specific medical monitoring.

Owing to exposure exceeding one of the regulatory dose limits for a worker, this event has been temporarily rated level 2 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), which comprises eight levels from 0 to 7.

 Press contact: Evangelia Petit, Head of the Press Department, tel: (+33) 1 46 16 41 42 - evangelia.petit@asn.fr

1. All workers likely to be exposed to ionising radiations shall be subject to dosimetric monitoring, adapted to the workplace, ensured by individuals means of measures, called ‘passive dosimeters”. The dose received by this equipment is calculated afterwards following its analysis, which requires few days.

2. For workers likely to be exposed to ionizing radiation during their work, annual regulatory dose limits for twelve consecutive months are 20 millisieverts for the whole body and 500 mSv for the extremities of the body and for any 1 cm² area of skin.