A passive automated personnel accountability system for reactor emergency preparedness

In 1985 a project was undertaken at the N Reactor on the Hanford Site to develop an automated personnel accountability system to ensure accountability of all personnel within 30 minutes of a site evacuation. The decision to develop such a system was made after a full-scale evacuation drill showed that the manual accountability system in use at the time was inadequate to meet the 30-minute requirement. Accountability systems at commercial nuclear power plants were evaluated, but found to be unsuitable because they were not passive, that is, they required action on part of the user for the system to work. Approximately 2500 people could be required to evacuate the 100-N Area. Therefore, a card key system or badge exchange system was judged not to be feasible. A passive accountability system was desired for N Reactor to allow personnel to enter and leave the site in a more timely manner. To meet the need for an automated accountability system at N Reactor, a special Evacuation Accountability System (EVACS) was designed and developed. The EVACS system has three basic components: the transponder, a credit card-sized device worn with the security badge; portal monitors, which are electronically activated by the transponder; and amore » computer information system that contains the personnel data base. Each person wearing a transponder is accounted for automatically by walking through a portal. In this paper, a description of the hardware and software will be presented, together with problems encountered and lessons learned while adapting an existing technology to this particular use. The system is currently installed and requires acceptance testing before becoming operational.« less