Leonard vs. The Atom
(Or, am I all aglow?)
January 5, 2000, article two

Here's a question. How much radiation would a person be exposed to if he or she spent five hours exploring the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant?

I found out for myself on Nov. 20, courtesy of Randy Burk, a local Boy Scout leader and a plant operator at Davis-Besse.

Randy conducted a tour for some Findlay high school students and allowed me to tag along.

After the kids were finished, we returned to the plant to view some other areas of the plant.

First of all, it's worth knowing that according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 5,000 millirems of radiation annually is the maximum allowable for a nuclear plant worker.

Randy has never received more than 250 in a year.

How bad is 250? Each and every one of us receives 293 millirems annually from naturally occurring "background" radiation.

Why? Because many elements we come into contact with every day give off harmless amounts of radiation. Think about that the next time you fire up your toaster.

Anyway, before entering some of the more sensitive areas, I had to wear a dosimeter.

A technician put the dosimeter in a computerized sensing device to make sure its initial reading was set to "zero."

Then it was off to see about as much of Davis-Besse as you can see without actually going in the containment building itself which houses the reactor vessel.

We climbed around more pipes, valves, meters, switches and pumps than you've ever seen in one place in your life.

At one point, we were standing right next to the containment building while Randy explained one of the emergency safety valves that would open automatically in an emergency so water could be pumped into the reactor.

He also showed me the spent fuel storage pool. We stood about 10-15 feet away from the edge. I could look down and see the old fuel assemblies, still radioactive under 23 feet of continuously recirculating water laced with boron.

When we were finished, I had to pass through a radiation detector, just as the employees do.

"Inset right arm" it flashed. I inserted my right arm.

"Counting right side," it continued. I waited patiently. "Right side okay," it announced.

"Oh, rapture," I sighed. I had to repeat the procedure for my left side.

"You may pass," blinked the detector. I felt like a new man.

Then I turned in my dosimeter to the technician who put in the computer to see if I picked up any stray radioactivity missed by the detector. He gave me a form with the results.

Initial reading = zero. Visitor individual exposure = zero.

So there I spent all that time in close proximity to all that atomic fissioning and I didn't get plunked by even one loose neutron.

What's more, I have my very own form (DP-HP-01204) to prove it.