Servicing reactors requires dangerous EVA radiation exposure

[LouisB3]

Nuclear reactors generate radiation, which would typically be mitigated by adding shielding to the same vessel. (On a surface base, adding lead and water can reasonably approximate realistic practices such as burying the reactor in a special facility.)

However, servicing (refueling) a reactor with NFE and/or SystemHeat requires EVA. EVA dramatically increases radiation exposure: 5x more than an unshielded vessel, and no benefit from the vessel's shielding. Servicing a reactor therefore requires a dangerous level of radiation exposure.

Possible approaches to counter this:

• Reduce the severity of the EVA penalty to radiation exposure (is it really 5x worse to be in a pressure suit than in an unshielded tin can?)
• Add a certain amount of shielding to EVA kerbals based on the suit that they are wearing, or based on tech upgrades. (for reference, Team Galileo has a plugin to progressively increase the temperature resistance of EVA kerbals depending on the level of the astronaut complex.)
• Add shielding (intrinsic or resource-based) to the EVA nuclear fuel canister added by SystemHeat. This could represent specialized equipment that kerbal technicians use to avoid exposure to reactor radiation. Probably the best solution.

TBD: if you add shielding to an EVA kerbal, does radiation exposure change as expected?

[LouisB3]

The bad news is that adding shielding to the fuel canister doesn't do anything to help kerbals on EVA. The good news is that radiation on other vessels within physics range doesn't count!