should be established by the commander on the recommendations of the medical
officer.
In the absence of specific guidelines, a dose-rate reading as
close to background, the environmental reading, as is practical will be
considered acceptable.
When operational areas are contaminated, personnel monitoring stations
should be established as soon as practicable at the lowest unit level having
the AN/PDR-27 or AN/VDR-2 RADIAC Sets.
All personnel leaving the
contaminated areas should be monitored. Personnel who are contaminated will
be required to decontaminate themselves, except those physically disabled.
Personnel monitoring is performed to detect contamination on the body.
Proper monitoring of personnel consists of complete and careful checking of
those parts of the body and clothing most susceptible to contamination.
Equipment that has been exposed to radiation or has been in a contaminated
area must be monitored. This should be performed at a material monitoring
station as near the contaminated area as possible. Equipment that is found
to be contaminated should remain within a restricted area until the
contamination either is removed or has decayed to background. In general,
care should be taken when monitoring equipment to pay particular attention
to those surfaces where the contamination is most likely to occur, such as:
wheels, tires, undersides of vehicles and aircraft; greasy surfaces, floors,
and steps. Before an attempt to recover or evacuate contaminated equipment,
a check should be made to determine the practicability of this action. If
the contamination exceeds the capabilities of any unit to decontaminate the
equipment to permit recovery and evacuation, the location should be
forwarded to the next higher headquarters, so that advice and assistance on
decontamination or disposal may be obtained.
The four steps for radiological decontamination are:
1.
Primary wash
2.
Rinse
3.
Interior decontamination
4.
Check
If the primary wash is not done, the equipment will have significant
contamination remaining on it which will not likely be removed later. This
would expose personnel to excessive levels of radiation.
Rinse off the
soapy water to provide an additional flushing step for removing
contamination.
RADIACmeters will locate radiological contamination during
interior decontamination Failure to do this properly will result in
contamination remaining in the interior areas.
Crews will not be able to
lower MOPP levels.
After interior decontamination, use the AN/PDR-27
RADIACmeter to check for radiological contamination. Any vehicle retaining
measurable contamination is recycled. If monitoring is not done or is done
improperly, the risk of contamination is greater.
6-7
CM5206
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