[ RadSafe ] RadSafe Digest, Vol 362, Issue 1

[Dan W McCarn]

Dear Lieber Franz:

Clayton was certainly not promoting the abandonment of sources, but
laying-out 2 important issues: 1) Corporate knowledge is lost when
experienced people leave; and 2)Work load for those remaining increases
until it is impossible to cope with all situations.  There is a thrid
implicit issue - that politics drive public employment.

I remember during my 8 year tenure with the IAEA, there was never overlap
between the time that an incumbebt left a post and when their replacement
arrived.  Normlly, there was a gap of 3-6 months. Programs and incentives
that had been promoted with vigor were often lost before the new arrival
found his voice.  Resources that had been allocated for programs were
re-assigned before the new guy had a chance to use them. They had to start
over from scratch.

Franz, these are the realities that are faced. New York State has a
population of 20 million, over twice the population of Austria (8 million)
and 1.5 times the area of Austria.  Lots of work and a decline of
experienced staff.


Dan ii

--
Dan W McCarn, Geologist
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
+1-505-672-2014 (Home – New Mexico)
+1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com





-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Franz Schönhofer
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 15:14
To: 'Clayton J Bradt'; radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] RadSafe Digest, Vol 362, Issue 1

Dear Clayton, 

After having read for years complaints about the "all to strict" US
regulations (spare me a comment), I am rather surprised to find here a
pledge for ignoring regulations!!! 

"Jaw dropping" has even a corresponding meaning in German and means more or
less the reaction to an opinion, which is first of all absolutely absurd and
unbelievable and secondarily totally unacceptable.  

Do you really recommend to forget radioactive sources somewhere, because
they are not needed any more? Do you recommend that they should be
forgotten, because a new RSO was appointed? 

And "retirement" is another excuse?

No, come one, you cannot be serious about your message!!!! Do other
RADSAFErs support these opinion? Hopefully not!

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] Im Auftrag von Clayton J Bradt
Gesendet: Freitag, 23. Juli 2010 20:26
An: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Betreff: Re: [ RadSafe ] RadSafe Digest, Vol 362, Issue 1

Rick Strickert wrote:

>For anyone who has worked with licensed radioactive materials or has  
>been a radiation safety officer, or has been audited by a licensing  
>agency, this sentence is simply jaw-dropping.


I don't know about "jaw-dropping".  This scenario is typical for lost
sources, especially industrial gauges.  Sources are unused for several years
and placed in storage or just left attached to shut-down area of the plant.
The demolition/renovation work is scheduled by some separate office in the
organization that isn't aware of the presence of the sources or even of the
existence of the radiation safety officer.  Demolition workers don't read
labels, so out the sources go with the rest of the demolition debris.

Apparently there was a new RSO appointed recently who may not have been
aware that the source safe was in an area scheduled for demolition until it
was too late.

The report by Illinois indicated that the last time the physical location of
the sources was verified by state inspectors was in 2005.

This last point is the most troubling, more for what it portends for the
future of all Agreement State programs than what it says specifically about
Illinois' inspection priorities.
The States are all hurting financially and cutting back everywhere. In New
York the governor is determined to shed state employees and has offered a
series of early retirement incentives within the past year.  As a result of
these, the NY DOH radiation control program has lost 4 experienced
inspectors and is likely to lose 2 more by the end of the summer.  On top of
this, the governor is talking about resorting to layoffs to trim the
workforce even further.  This happens to be an election year, and although
the present governor, Paterson, is not running, both major party candidates
have indicated that they also are planning to reduce the state workforce
once in office.

I assume that other states are going through the same process of shedding
employees as fast as they can.  As this event, and other similar ones
clearly show, frequent physical inspection by regulators is essential for
preventing the loss of radioactive sources. With the loss of state
inspectors all across the country, we can expect more of these incidents in
the future.
*********************

Full disclosure statement: Yes, I am a member of a public employee union.

Clayton J. Bradt
Principal Radiophysicist
NYS Dept. of Health
Biggs Laboratory, Room D486A
Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12201-0509

518-474-1993


> Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:56:13 -0500
> From: "Strickert, Rick" <rstrickert at signaturescience.com>
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Illinois Hospital Loses Radioactive Material
> To: "Garner, William H" <whgarn2 at email.uky.edu>,
>    "radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu"   <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Message-ID:
>    <9570FCB2DD870B4692083A08D14B9C7EECDEDF7937 at ss-
> mail.corp.signaturescience.com>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
>
> "The lead-lined safe [holding radioactive material] at the Riverside 
> Medical Center in Kankakee was not located when construction workers 
> finished a demolition job at the medical center on July 13"
>
>
> For anyone who has worked with licensed radioactive materials or has 
> been a radiation safety officer, or has been audited by a licensing 
> agency, this sentence is simply jaw-dropping.
>
>
> Rick Strickert
> Austin, TX
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> RadSafe mailing list
> RadSafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> http://health.phys.iit.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/radsafe
>
>
> End of RadSafe Digest, Vol 362, Issue 1
> ***************************************
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