Nuclear Facilities
Emergency Planning
J. C. Courtney
Louisiana State University
I. Potential Emergencies
II. On-Site Response
III. Off-Site Response
IV. Planning
GLOSSARY
Contamination Radioactive or other potentially haz-
ardous materials in places where they are undesired.
Any process that is directed toward cleaning up or
removal of these materials is called decontamination.
Core That part of a reactor that contains the nuclear fuel
and most of the radioactivity. Safety systems are de-
signed to reduce the probability of radioactive materi-
als escaping from the core into the environment.
Criticality Condition under which energy is produced
by self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions. Acciden-
tal criticality outside of the shielding and containment
provided by a reactor could produce a burst of nu-
clear radiation and subsequent dispersal of radioactive
materials.
Curie A measure of the radioactivity of a material. One
Curie (Ci) is defined as 37,000,000,000 disintegrations
per second of any radionuclide.
Dose Amount of energy from nuclear radiation absorbed
per unit mass of any material. Radiation sources outside
of the body as well as internally deposited radionu-
clides contribute to the dose to the whole body.
Dose commitment Estimate of the radiation dose to the
whole body and to specific organs from radionuclides
that are deposited in the body. These estimates are based
on the amount and type of radionuclides inhaled or
ingested and their behavior within the human body.
The unit of dose commitment is the rem in any organ
of interest.
Emergency response facility Designated area, usually
on the nuclear facility site, where emergency managers
and their advisory staffs gather. This area should be
protected from any threat that might arise from any
abnormal conditions in the facility.
Fissile materials Heavy elements, such as plutonium or
uranium, enriched in the isotope 235 or 233 that can
readily support a self-sustaining fission chain reaction.
Ingestion pathway exposure zone Area defined by a
given distance from the facility within which resources
must be allocated to measure radioactivity in samples
of water and food. If levels that would lead to ingestion
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