[ RadSafe ] Fwd: Legacy school rad materials disposal

[Chris Alston]

Dan

Marty's points are spot-on.  I'll go a step further, and suggest that
the regs governing the "distribution" and disposal of exempt
quantities, and generally-licensed RAM, can be gnarly, to say the
least.  Logic, as we might see it, is really neither here nor there.

I think that it would help the schools much, if they were to call a
friendly regulatory agent, on the RAM licensing side of the aisle, to
get the lowdown on how best to handle it, and what's permissible, and
what is not.  Or maybe a kindly consultant would donate some pro bono
advice to them (it's probably a tax write-off, what?).

Cheers
cja

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dan McCarn <hotgreenchile at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 3:32 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Legacy school rad materials disposal
To: "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing
List" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
I suspect that a 10 lb bag of phosphate fertilizer would exceed the
total activity of all the sets of materials as you've described. Also,
given that the ingrowth of progeny is minimal, that's less reason to
be concerned.

> On Jan 27, 2014, at 9:55 AM, "Bourquin, Marty" <Marty.Bourquin at grace.com> wrote:
> Just as a reminder - there are different definitions for what is regulated depending on the agency.  Exempt quantities are specified in Rad regs.  The quantity and concentration limits you refer to (DOT, IATA, IMDG etc) are used for transport of material - two different situations with different limits.
> I agree with your assessment that for transportation purposes they will, in all likelihood, not meet the definition of Radioactive materials.
> However the proper disposal will depend on , as stated by the original poster, how they were originally distributed and the amount of activity present.