Occupational Radiation Exposure at NRC Licensed Facilities

values, not the three-year rolling average that is
presented in Section 4.5. Nearly every year the
median collective dose is less than the average,
which indicates that more of the reactors tend
to be at lower collective doses than is reflected
by the average. This is a result of the wide
difference between the maximum and minimum
annual collective doses at power plants and
that some plants accrue higher collective dose
during refueling outages. These plants that
have outages during the year (and thus higher
collective doses) increase the value of the
average collective dose, while the median (or
middle-point of the doses) remains lower.
4.5 THREE-YEAR AVERAGE
COLLECTIVE TEDE PER
REACTOR
The three-year average collective dose per
reactor is one of the metrics that the NRC uses
in the Reactor Oversight Program to evaluate
the effectiveness of the licensee's ALARA
program. Tables 4.5 and 4.6 list the sites that
had been in commercial operation for at least
three years as of December 31, 2010, and
show the values of several parameters for each
of the sites. These tables also give averages
for the two types of reactors.
Based on the 105 reactor-years of operation
accumulated over a three-year period by
the 35 BWRs listed, the average three-year
collective TEDE per reactor was found to be
139 person-rem, the average measurable
TEDE per individual was 0.13 rem, and the
average collective TEDE per MW-yr was 0.16
person-rem. For BWRs, all values decreased
slightly or remained the same from 2009 to
2010.

Based on the 207 reactor-years of operation
accumulated over a three-year period at the
69 PWRs listed, the average annual collective
TEDE per reactor, average measurable TEDE
per individual, and average collective TEDE
per MW-yr were found to be 64 person-rem,
0.10 rem, and 0.07 person-rem respectively.
For PWRs, all values either decreased slightly
or remained the same from 2009 to 2010.
In addition to the listings provided in Tables
4.5 and 4.6, the quartile ranking is used by
the NRC as a factor in planning the number
of inspection hours assigned per site. For this
reason, Tables 4.7 and 4.8 have been included
in the 2010 annual report for BWRs and PWRs,
respectively. These tables show the plant
name, three-year collective TEDE per reactor,
the percent change in the three-year average
from the previous three-year period, and the
quartile ranking from the previous period if the
ranking has changed.
4.6 INTERNATIONAL
OCCUPATIONAL RADIATION
EXPOSURE
The NRC must perform certain legislatively
mandated international duties. These include
licensing the import and export of nuclear
materials and equipment and participating
in activities supporting U.S. government
compliance with international treaties and
agreement obligations. In addition, the
NRC actively cooperates with multinational
organizations, such as the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Energy
Agency (NEA), a part of the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD).[Ref. 16]

NUREG-0713

Forty-Third Annual Report, 2010

4-13