RE: Man Sentenced in radioactive Poisoning Case

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 14:59 11.01.2000 -0600, you wrote:
>My comment:  If Franz knows a way to prevent the deliberate, calculated
>theft of radioactive materials by an employee of the licensee, I would
>really appreciate it if he could share the idea with us.  When an employee
>has access to the material and then deliberately decides to misuse the
>material, how does one prevent this?  Deliberate theft is an impossible
>situation to control.  If Franz has the answer, he should go into the
>security business - he would make a fortune.  I truly await your answer
>Franz.

Dear Larry,

Yes, I have an answer - from my own practice, but I do not think that I
will make any money with it. I offer you a 50:50 share when you market it....

To be more serious: I have yesterday started my new work in a ministry in
Austria, but until recently I have worked for more than 20 years as head of
a radiochemistry laboratory, where we had a large selection of
radionuclides, radioactive standards, hazardous chemicals and extremely
poisonous chemicals. All radioactive material was - as the Austrian
Radiation Protection Law and the Ordinance require - kept in lead castles,
which were locked with special locks, for which I had the keys. I was
responsible for the security of the radioactive material and also for
radiation protection. All hazardous chemicals - which are clearly defined
by Austrian law - had to be locked and were of course locked in a metal
container, for which I had the special key. Being a chemist I was also
responsible for hazardous chemicals. Within the metal container
there was a second one, with an even more sophisticated lock, in which the
extremely poisonous material like cyanides, mercury compounds etc. were
kept. Of course I also had this key. 

When any coworker, who was not specially authorized needed some material
out of these, it was handed out to him by me for the time of use and then
put back.

I do not understand, what is so complicated and impossible about this?


>
>PS:  Franz's cheap shots and cheap innuendo towards the USA ..........


I do not shoot towards the USA. But I "shoot" towards people who want to
make me (or us?) believe that there do not exist any regulations as to the
safe keeping of radioactive material and extremely poisonous chemicals and
that it is not possible to prevent misuse of these materials. If somebody
from any other country would tell this in an open forum I would comment it
in the same way. I do not want to go into details. I have too many good
friends in the USA (and in a lot of other countries as well) that I would
generalize from single events to a whole nation. Anyway it is for me
obvious that several US-RADSAFERs have an extremely critical approach to
the US, some even severely attacking the government, the regulatory bodies,
the agencies, the mass media anyway. 

I appreciate your pointed remarks and hope you do not mind in the future if
I post pointed ones.

Best wishes for 2000!

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

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