NUCLEAR PPE preciouscargo
responders transporting nuclear materials around the world
containers for transporting nuclear material and licenses their use with the appropriate regulators. It then transports nuclear material by sea on its fleet of specialist ships from the UK and France to destinations in Europe and Japan. Compliance with national transport regulations and international guidelines requires INS to have a highly developed and tested emergence response capability that can manage any incident, any time and anywhere in the world. And working with high hazard material requires a broad sweep of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the knowledge to maintain it and use it properly. Including its subsidiary Pacific Nuclear
I
Transport Ltd, INS has a fleet of five specialist vessels and has for 40 years transported nuclear materials without any incident involving the release of radioactivity. However, INS train and test rigorously for such an eventuality and has acquired considerable knowledge of managing and responding to many kinds of incidents. For emergency response, INS must be able to deploy a team of two health physicists, two nuclear engineers and a command team anywhere in the world.
Safe transport in PPE The teams are on call 24/7 and must be self- sufficient when they are deployed in terms of their PPE - a critical factor given the likelihood of the teams being deployed by air and then ship-to-ship transfer to the ‘coalface’ of an incident. All equipment must be formatted in manageable, transportable weights for the team.
nternational Nuclear Services (INS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, designs
The mainstays for the teams’ PPE are PVC
suits, respirators and gloves. These are very high usage and operators need lots of spare sets to maintain what could be an enduring on-scene presence. The teams operate for long periods and the fact that this is their day job adds to their physical and mental ability to operate in the hot zone for radiation incidents. INS has adopted an industry standard for
teams wearing PPE within the hot zone, which has been adapted from best practice over the years to ensure they are adequately protected and able to work within varied conditions. Because the work is highly protracted and conditions onboard ship can be humid and confined, the PPE needs to be lightweight, low maintenance and offer full body protection. A typical set of PPE will be a PVC suit, full
face self contained respirator, PVC gloves and safety boots. Tychem and Tyvek suits are also used and these are pre-deployed to selected worldwide locations. By combing user comfort with a high functionality, these suits cover all applications INS comes into contact with. As with all PPE it is of paramount importance to keep what’s inside the suit inside and what’s outside the suit outside.
Fukushima: high through usage A critical lesson identified from Fukushima for INS was the high through usage of disposable PPE by wearers. This resulted in INS assessing its current storage of PPE - and is currently evaluating sealed specially constructed flight containers with custom approval to transport the equipment out to the scene of operations. Because the teams will deploy in helicopters and perhaps smaller aircraft, room and weight is a high premium. In the INS management
54 | CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL & NUCLEAR WARFARE | 2012/02
system for safe and proper use disposal is a critical element and correct disposal routes are managed by INS with their knowledge built up over many years to deal effectively with such incidents. A typical deployment would involve team
members being bleeped to attend the site, followed by a briefing and initial plan of action based on information received at that point. Locations vary across the world with some typical examples over the past three years - Japan, France, Netherlands, Panama, English Channel, and the Pacific. Another key aspect of the teams’ PPE is effective inoculations and treatment for malaria, polio, hepatitis B, Tetanus, diphtheria and typhoid. A fully equipped medical bag accompanies each team, containing first aid equipment, hypodermic needles and other emergency medical equipment for use by doctors in the country to
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