Print View Posted on: 03 November 2011
The licensee radiography crew believed they had retracted the source back into the body of the radiography camera. They then approached the pipe. One radiographer noticed that an indicator on the camera suggested the source was actually not fully retracted into the body of the camera. The radiographers’ survey meters registered a zero reading; however, one radiographer’s digital rate meter was alarming. One of the radiographers turned one crank on the camera, and that is when the source became fully retracted. After observing their pocket self-reading dosimeters, they realized the dosimeters were off-scale. The licensee sent their dosimetry badges for emergency processing. One of the badges recorded a whole body dose of 51 mSv (5.1 rem), which exceeds the statutory limit of 50 mSv (5 rem).