SRP has over two hundred retired members . Although many have fully retired , quite a number are still actively involved in the workings of SRP , for example , serving on committees and assisting with Outreach . As part of the planning for this magazine , retired members were contacted and we had quite a number of responses . Many indicated that they would be willing to write about past experiences which may be of interest to those currently working in radiation protection .
The Pochin Inquiry 1978
Sheila Liddle , SRP Past President , worked as an operational health physicist at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment ( AWRE ) in Aldermaston for the first 24 years of her career . Here she recounts the situation in the late 1970s which led to a Public Inquiry and had a dramatic effect on radiation protection and the nuclear industry .
The AWRE has been described as a townsized complex of purpose-built facilities , workshops and offices , for developing and making nuclear weapons . Originally established by the Ministry of Supply , management was transferred to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority ( UKAEA ) in 1954 , then to the MOD in 1973 . In the late 1970s , AWRE employed approximately 6,000 staff .
In 1978 , a Health Physicist raised the concern that a number of ladies working in the laundry were excreting low levels of actinides . Calculations of their systemic body burdens indicated their intakes were greater than realised . At this time staff were monitored using urine samples , with the routine bioassay results copied to the Health Physicists . However , the local action levels in use did not reflect systemic burdens if the intakes were due to low level chronic exposures . The nuclear industry was then working to the levels recommended in Table 1 of ICRP 2 , using Maximum Permissible Body Burdens . It was not until 1981 that the concept of Annual Limits of Intake was developed .
When the laundry workers were informed of their intakes , they sought advice from their Trade Unions . A local Councillor , also an employee , raised the matter in the press . As a result , the Government appointed Sir Edward Pochin , a renowned physician , to chair a Public Inquiry in 1978 .
AWRE Laundry
Staff in AWRE ’ s radioactive facilities walked out , refusing to work until the Inquiry made its recommendations .
Pochin reported that although industrial safety standards were high , there were a number of deficiencies and frequent minor contamination incidents , with a risk of larger discharges . Nuclear expertise had been lost when responsibility for management was transferred to the MOD , and there were too few Health Physicists and surveyors . The surveyors reported to facility management and the Health Physicists were employed in a purely advisory role - and their advice could be ignored . Pochin also identified the need to increase the number of maintenance workers in the facilities and in staffing the changerooms . A Civil Service ban on recruitment had led to staff shortages .
The cause of contamination in the laundry was found to be defective ventilation which
16 Radiation Protection Today www . srp-rpt . uk