17.6 Community Reception Centers
213
it will be necessary to perform contamination surveys and to pull air samples regularly on both the hot and cold sides as long as the CRC is in operation in order to
confirm that the “cold” side remains contamination-free. The boundary between the
hot and cold sides will be the screening station.
As envisioned, a CRC will include several stations, described below:
1. Preliminary screening and sorting—as members of the public are lined up
waiting to enter the CRC personnel will circulate among them performing radiation surveys. Anybody who is emitting elevated levels of radiation will be taken
aside to determine if they are nuclear medicine patients or if they were contaminated and require decontamination. Pulling people out of the line at this point
will get them decontaminated more quickly (if they are contaminated) and will
keep a single person from triggering alarms on as many as ten portal monitors
simultaneously when they walk into the screening room. During this time, those
waiting in line might also be given information cards to fill out and/or shown
videos explaining what to expect as they pass through the CRC.
2. First aid—while public service announcements will encourage those who are
injured to seek medical attention, it is likely that there will be many who do not
consider their injuries to be sufficiently serious as to warrant medical attention,
and it is possible that there will be others who fall ill or who are injured while
at the CRC. The First Aid station will be responsible for caring for these people
and for identifying those who require more advanced medical care at a hospital
or urgent care center.
3. Whole-body screening—Many CRC plans call for screening to be performed
using multiple walk-through portal monitors in a large room such as a gymnasium. Those being screened would be directed into one of ten lanes (more or
less, depending on the specific CRC design) where they will approach and walk
through the monitor. If they have internal or external contamination the monitor
will alarm and they will be sent to the decontamination station. The challenge
at the screening station will be to set portal monitor alarms low enough so that
those with more than one CDG of internal contamination will trigger the alarms,
while keeping alarm setpoints high enough to minimize false alarms.
4. Decontamination—Those sent to the decontamination station will remove their
outer clothing and will be decontaminated using an appropriate methodology
(wet, dry, moist, or a combination). Decontamination will continue until the
person is decontaminated (the count rate on the person is below acceptable
levels) or until it is clear that the skin is decontaminated and the remaining
contamination must be internal. These groups will both be sent to the registration
station, and the second group will then proceed to the dose assessment station.
5. Radiation dose assessment—those who meet certain criteria—typically having
evidence of internal and/or external contamination—will be sent to the dose
assessment station. The person(s) staffing the dose assessment station will
review the information collected and might collect additional information; one
of the dose assessment methods discussed in Chap. 18 will be used to determine
213
it will be necessary to perform contamination surveys and to pull air samples regularly on both the hot and cold sides as long as the CRC is in operation in order to
confirm that the “cold” side remains contamination-free. The boundary between the
hot and cold sides will be the screening station.
As envisioned, a CRC will include several stations, described below:
1. Preliminary screening and sorting—as members of the public are lined up
waiting to enter the CRC personnel will circulate among them performing radiation surveys. Anybody who is emitting elevated levels of radiation will be taken
aside to determine if they are nuclear medicine patients or if they were contaminated and require decontamination. Pulling people out of the line at this point
will get them decontaminated more quickly (if they are contaminated) and will
keep a single person from triggering alarms on as many as ten portal monitors
simultaneously when they walk into the screening room. During this time, those
waiting in line might also be given information cards to fill out and/or shown
videos explaining what to expect as they pass through the CRC.
2. First aid—while public service announcements will encourage those who are
injured to seek medical attention, it is likely that there will be many who do not
consider their injuries to be sufficiently serious as to warrant medical attention,
and it is possible that there will be others who fall ill or who are injured while
at the CRC. The First Aid station will be responsible for caring for these people
and for identifying those who require more advanced medical care at a hospital
or urgent care center.
3. Whole-body screening—Many CRC plans call for screening to be performed
using multiple walk-through portal monitors in a large room such as a gymnasium. Those being screened would be directed into one of ten lanes (more or
less, depending on the specific CRC design) where they will approach and walk
through the monitor. If they have internal or external contamination the monitor
will alarm and they will be sent to the decontamination station. The challenge
at the screening station will be to set portal monitor alarms low enough so that
those with more than one CDG of internal contamination will trigger the alarms,
while keeping alarm setpoints high enough to minimize false alarms.
4. Decontamination—Those sent to the decontamination station will remove their
outer clothing and will be decontaminated using an appropriate methodology
(wet, dry, moist, or a combination). Decontamination will continue until the
person is decontaminated (the count rate on the person is below acceptable
levels) or until it is clear that the skin is decontaminated and the remaining
contamination must be internal. These groups will both be sent to the registration
station, and the second group will then proceed to the dose assessment station.
5. Radiation dose assessment—those who meet certain criteria—typically having
evidence of internal and/or external contamination—will be sent to the dose
assessment station. The person(s) staffing the dose assessment station will
review the information collected and might collect additional information; one
of the dose assessment methods discussed in Chap. 18 will be used to determine