Personnel Contamination Protection Techniques Applied During the Three Mile Island Unit 2 Cleanup

The radiologically hostile environment resulting from the Three Mile Island Unit 2 accident required the application of various techniques to provide effective personnel contamination protection. A wide variety of protective clothing was utilized throughout the cleanup, ranging from cloth clothing to heavy-duty firefighter’s gear for work in areas containing highintensity beta contamination. In prescribing protective clothing, the overall risk to the worker was considered to ensure that the intended task could be performed at maximum efficiency. Through the application of appropriate protective clothing, skin contaminations were effectively minimized.