Operators (Employers)

What do I need to know?

Operator (employer) is any person or organization applying for authorization or authorized and/or responsible for safety when undertaking activities or in relation to any nuclear facilities or sources of ionizing radiation. This includes private individuals, governmental bodies, consignors or carriers, licensees, hospitals, self-employed persons. They have recognized responsibilities, commitments and duties towards a worker in the employment of the person or organization by virtue of a mutually agreed relationship.

Responsibilities of the Operator/Employer

General Safety Guide No. 7 (GSG-7) lays forth some recommendations for Operator/Employers when dealing with planned occupational exposure scenarios. These can be found in paragraphs 3.49-3.158 of GSG-7. These will be covered below. Additionally, more information relevant to the uranium mining and processing industry can be found in Safety Report Series No. 100 Chapter 3 “General Radiation Protection Considerations in Uranium Mining and Processing.”

In relation to planned occupational exposure, operator (employer) is responsible for protection of workers against occupational exposure by:

1. Ensuring that:
    
   1. Protection and safety are optimized and that the dose limits for occupational exposure are not exceeded.
   2. Occupational exposure is controlled so that the relevant dose limits for occupational exposure are not exceeded.
   3. Protection and safety are optimized in accordance with the requirements of GSR Part 3.
   4. Decisions with regard to measures for protection and safety are recorded and made available to relevant parties, through their representatives where appropriate, as specified by the regulatory body.
   5. Policies, procedures and organizational arrangements for protection and safety are established for implementing the relevant requirements of these Standards, with priority given to design measures and technical measures for controlling occupational exposure.
   6. Suitable and adequate facilities, equipment and services for protection and safety are provided, the type and extent of which are commensurate with the expected likelihood and magnitude of occupational exposure.
   7. Necessary workers’ health surveillance and health services for workers are provided.
   8. Appropriate monitoring equipment and personal protective equipment is provided, and arrangements are made for its proper use, calibration, testing and maintenance.
   9. Suitable and adequate human resources and appropriate training in protection and safety are provided, as well as periodic retraining as required to ensure the necessary level of competence;
   10. Adequate records are maintained in accordance with the requirements of these Standards.
   11. Arrangements are made to facilitate consultation of and cooperation with workers, through their representatives where appropriate, with regard to protection and safety on all measures necessary to achieve the effective application of these Standards.
   12. Necessary conditions for promoting safety culture are provided.
   13. Workers exposed to radiation from sources within a practice that are not required by or directly related to their work have the same level of protection against such exposure as members of the public.
        
2. Taking administrative actions as are necessary to ensure that workers are informed that ensuring protection and safety is an integral part of a general occupational health and safety programme in which they have specific obligations and responsibilities for their own protection and the protection of others against radiation exposure and for the safety of sources.
3. Recording any report received from a worker that identifies circumstances that could affect compliance with the requirements of GSR part 3 and shall take appropriate action.
4. Facilitating compliance by workers with the requirements of GSR part 3.

Radiation Protection Programme

“Employers, registrants and licensees shall establish and maintain organizational, procedural and technical arrangements for the designation of controlled areas and supervised areas, for local rules and for monitoring of the workplace, in a radiation protection programme for occupational exposure.” – GSR Part 3 Requirement 24.

Local rules and procedures and personal protective equipment

Operator(employer) shall minimize the need to rely on administrative controls and personal protective equipment for protection and safety by providing well engineered controls and satisfactory working conditions, in accordance with the following hierarchy of preventive measures: (1) engineered controls;(2) Administrative controls; (3) Personal protective equipment.

Operator(employer)in consultation with workers, or through their representatives where appropriate shall :

1. Establish in writing local rules and procedures that are necessary for protection and safety for workers and other persons.
2. Include in the local rules and procedures any relevant investigation level or authorized level, and the procedures to be followed in the event that any such level is exceeded.
3. Make the local rules and procedures and the measures for protection and safety known to those workers to whom they apply and to other persons who may be affected by them.
4. Ensure that any work in which workers are or could be subject to occupational exposure is adequately supervised and shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the rules, procedures, and measures for protection and safety are observed.
5. Designate, as appropriate, a radiation protection officer in accordance with criteria established by the regulatory body.
6. Ensure that workers are provided with suitable and adequate personal protective equipment that meets relevant standards or specifications.
7. Ensure that where appropriate, workers receive adequate instruction in the proper use of respiratory protective equipment, including testing for good fit.

Assessment of occupational exposure and workers’ health surveillance

Operator (employers) shall be responsible for making arrangements for assessment and recording of occupational exposures and for workers’ health surveillance. They are responsible in:

1. Making arrangements for assessment of the occupational exposure of workers, on the basis of individual monitoring where appropriate, and shall ensure that arrangements are made with authorized or approved dosimetry service providers that operate under a quality management system.
2. Ensuring that workers who could be subject to exposure due to contamination are identified, including workers who use respiratory protective equipment. Employers shall arrange for appropriate monitoring to the extent necessary to demonstrate the effectiveness of the measures for protection and safety and to assess intakes of radionuclides and the committed effective doses.

Records of occupational exposure

As Record keeping is an essential part of the individual monitoring process. Employers, shall:

1. Maintain records of occupational exposure34 for every worker for whom assessment of occupational exposure is required.
2. Provide workers with access to records of their own occupational exposure.
3. Provide the supervisor of the programme for workers’ health surveillance, the regulatory body and the relevant employer with access to workers’ records of occupational exposure.
4. Facilitate the provision of copies of workers’ exposure records to new employers when workers change employment.
5. Make arrangements for the retention of exposure records for former workers by the employer, registrant or licensee, as appropriate.
6. Complying with (2)–(5) above, give due care and attention to maintaining the confidentiality of records.

Information, instruction and training

Operator(employer) shall provide workers with adequate information, instruction and training for protection and safety. This includes:

1. Providing all workers with adequate information on health risks due to their occupational exposure in normal operation, anticipated operational occurrences and accident conditions, adequate instruction and training and periodic retraining in protection and safety, and adequate information on the significance of their actions for protection and safety.
2. Providing those workers who could be involved in or affected by the response to an emergency with appropriate information, and adequate instruction and training and periodic retraining, for protection and safety.
3. Maintaining records of the training provided to individual workers.
4. Cooperating to ensure that contractors, including subcontractors and itinerant workers, are provided with the necessary information and with appropriate training.

Special arrangements for female workers, as necessary, for protection of the embryo or fetus and breastfed infants

Female workers who are liable to enter controlled areas or supervised areas or who may undertake emergency duties shall be provided with appropriate information on:

1. The risk to the embryo or fetus due to exposure of a pregnant woman.
2. The importance for a female worker of notifying her employer as soon as possible if she suspects that she is pregnant35 or if she is breast-feeding.
3. The risk of health effects for a breastfed infant due to ingestion of radioactive substances.

The Operator(employer) of a female worker, who has been notified of her suspected pregnancy or that she is breast-feeding, shall adapt the working conditions in respect of occupational exposure so as to ensure protection as is required for members of the public.

For persons under 18 years of age who are undergoing training

Operator(employer) shall ensure that :

1. No person under the age of 16 years is or could be subject to occupational exposure.
2. Persons under the age of 18 years are allowed access to a controlled area only under supervision and only for the purpose of training for employment in which they are or could be subject to occupational exposure or for the purpose of studies in which sources are used.

Exposure Of Emergency Workers

Restricting exposure of emergency workers

As the exposure of emergency workers is intentional and controlled, the dose limits for workers should be assumed to apply unless there are overriding reasons not to apply them.

 “Response organizations and employers shall ensure that no emergency worker is subject to an exposure in an emergency in excess of 50 mSv other than:

1. For the purposes of saving life or preventing serious injury.
2. When undertaking actions to prevent severe deterministic effects and actions to prevent the development of catastrophic conditions that could significantly affect people and the environment; or
3. When undertaking actions to avert a large collective dose.

Response organizations and operator(employer) should implement the programme for managing, controlling and recording the doses received by emergency workers in a nuclear or radiological emergency established by the government. They are required to ensure that emergency workers who undertake actions in which the doses received might exceed 50 mSv do so voluntarily.

Assessment of Exposure

Response organizations and operator(employer)should take all reasonable steps to assess and record the exposures received by workers in an emergency. Records of occupational exposure should be generated and maintained in a simplified standard format by all response organizations and employers to avoid confusion. Information on the doses received and on the associated health risks should be communicated to the emergency workers involved. Sometimes this emergency worker assessment of exposure is included in the normal radiation protection programme. For more information regarding emergency workers, please see our emergency workers page. 

References

• Radiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources: International Basic Safety Standards, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 3, IAEA, Vienna (2014)
• Occupational Radiation Protection, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSG-7, IAEA, Vienna
• Occupational Radiation Protection in the Uranium Mining and Precessing Industry, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. 100, IAEA, Vienna (2020)