Itenerant Workers

What are the examples of itinerant workers and the types of work they perform?

Typical examples of itinerant workers and the types of work they perform include:

• Maintenance workers in the nuclear power industry — employed by a contractor providing services during normal operations, shutdown or maintenance outages.
• Personnel for quality assurance, in-service inspection and non-destructive examination or testing in the nuclear power industry and other industries.
• Maintenance staff and cleaning staff in general industry who could be exposed to radiation from a wide range of applications.
• Contractors providing specialized services — for example removal of scale and sediment from within pipes and vessels (for the decontamination of equipment), the transport of radioactive waste, or the loading or changing of radioactive sources at irradiation facilities.
• Contracted workers in mining and minerals processing facilities who could be exposed to naturally occurring radioactive material.
• Industrial radiography companies contracted to work at a facility operated by a management other than their own.
• Workers performing contracted security screening using X ray machines or radioactive sources.
• Contracted workers involved in the decommissioning of facilities of various types, and in the decontamination of associated buildings and the remediation of outside areas.
• Contracted workers of companies installing and servicing medical equipment.
• Medical staff who work in supervised areas or controlled areas in several hospitals or clinics (whether fixed or mobile) not operated by their employer.

What do I need to know?

It is the management of facilities to ensure that contractors carrying out work at the facility are using personnel who are competent to carry out the work. Accordingly, the competence of contractor personnel may need to be formally assessed and documented.

This approach will be appropriate where the contractor’s employees are potentially exposed due to the sources under the control of the facility. The approach will also be appropriate where the contractors are themselves bringing a source into the facility and where there is a potential for the facility’s employees to be exposed due to this source.

The assessment process should include formal procedures to determine the necessary competences (through education, experience, and initial and continued training programmes) and the qualification requirements for any job carried out by contractors that could have implications for protection and safety. Established guides or quality management procedures can be useful in the assessment process.

What is the possible exposure?

The range of work carried out by itinerant workers makes it difficult to assign responsibilities explicitly without first considering specific situations. These can range from situations in which the management of a facility will be required contractually to provide most of the necessary services for protection and safety for itinerant workers to situations in which most of the duties and responsibilities will usually fall on the contractor.

Within this range, three types of exposure scenario can occur:

(a) The operation of a facility has the potential to cause exposure of the contractor’s employees, who themselves do not possess a radiation source. In such cases, the management of the facility is the registrant or licensee and the contractor is merely an employer.

(b) The contractor’s employees bring their own source of radiation to a facility and, hence, have the potential to cause exposure of the employees of that facility. In such cases, the contractor is the registrant or licensee and the management of the facility is merely an employer.

(c) A combination of (a) and (b), whereby the operation of the facility and the activities of the contractor on-site both have the potential to cause exposure to each other’s employees. In such cases, both the management of the facility and the contractor are registrants or licensees.

Who is responsible for your protection and safety?

The person or organization responsible for any facility or activity that gives rise to radiation risks shall have the prime responsibility for protection and safety, which cannot be delegated.

Organisations/employers are responsible for:

• devising, implementing, and regularly reviewing their Radiation Protection Programme.
• regulatory compliance.
• development a training programme that provides the appropriate level of training and information specific to the worker`s job assignments and also general radiation protection information.
• induction and ongoing training of workers, including contractors.
• appropriate dosimetry arragements.
• record keeping.

What are your responsibilities to the employer and the management of the facility?

Itinerant workers need to be suitably qualified before performing the work assigned to them.

Itinerant workers are responsible for:

• providing to the employer (and registrant or licensee, where appropriate) information on work history relevant to developing an effective protection and safety programme for the worker (and others).
• communicating perspectives on job specific radiation risks gained from education and training, and otherwise cooperating with regard to developing and executing an effective protection and safety programme.
• following radiation protection practices specified in local rules, procedures and in the Radiation Protection Programmme, including the proper use of monitoring and personal protective equipment as described in those rules and procedures.
• complying with legitimate instructions of the employer or designated Radiation Protection Officer;
• participation in radiation protection training.
• reporting to the employer or designated Radiation Protection Officer identified circumstances jeopardizing protection and safety of the worker or others.
• abstaining from any wilful action that could put the worker or others in situations not in compliance with the requirements for protection and safety.

What are the dose limits?

The GSR Part 3 requires annual limits for public and occupational exposure to ionising radiation: 1 mSv for the members of the public and 20 mSv for workers who are occupationally exposed. Despite this, there are different definitions of who is “occupationally exposed” and who should wear personal dosimeters.

References

• Fundamental Safety Principles, IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SF-1, IAEA, Vienna (2006)
• 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 (2018).
• Radiation Protection of Itinerant Workers, Safety Reports Series No. 84, IAEA, Vienna (2015)