CHAPTER 3
TRAINING AND INDOCTRINATION
3.1
PROJECT MONITOR SCHOOLS
In accordance with the expressed policy of the CTG-%.1, a series of schools was established to qualify project and Holmes and Narver (H&N) supervisory personnel as radiologicalsafety monitors. Three schools were conducted: one at the Nevada Proving Ground early in
November 1953; one at Eninman Island, Bikini Atoll, in the middle of February 1954; and one
at Parry Island, Eniwetok Atoll, in early April 1954, About 200 individuals were qualified as
radiological-safety monitors as a result of these schools. Comparable training sessions
were conducted by the health physics organizations of Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier
(EG&G); University of California Radiation Laboratory (UCRL), LivermoreSite; and the U. S.
Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory.
The first and best attended school was a three-day instruction course at the Nevada Proving Ground. The plan of instruction was practical in nature and consisted of field exercises and
problems of monitoring in radiologically contaminated areas. Exercises and problems were of
2- or 4-hr duration and were handled in a “county fair” system of instruction with 12 individuals in each instructional group. The eight sessions were as follows:
1. Dosimetry: An exercise designed to familiarize the student with film badges and
pocket dosimeters as radiation-dosage measuring devices and to give the student practice in
charging, reading, and determining the correction factor on these dosimeters,
2, Calibration of ion-chamber type survey meter: An exercise designed to teach the student the operation, use, and calibration of an ion-chamber type survey meter.
3, Calibration of Geiger-Mueller type survey meter: An exercise designed to teach the
student the operation, use, and calibration of the Geiger-Mueller type survey meter.
4. Shielding properties of common materials: An exercise to teach the effect of various
absorbers of gamma radiation by determining the absorption coefficient and half thickness of
different absorbing materials.
5. Organizational maintenance of instruments: An exercise designed to acquaint the stu-
dent with the basic concepts of maintenance and to present some of the details of maintenance
applicable to the Geiger-~Mueller counter and ion-chamber type instruments.
6. Decontamination: An exercise designed to familiarize the student with some of the
methods used in the decontamination of radiologically contaminated materials by having the
students employ a few of these methods and make comparisonsof the results.
7. Field monitoring: An exercise designed to allow students to practice monitoring of
large contaminated areas and to plot isointensity lines by comparing the results of rapid and
detailed surveys.
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8, Problems: A session organized to introduce the student to the calculations necessary
for the solution of dosage and time-of-stay problems through the use of radiation-calculator
slide rules and tables.
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