Re: Contaminated Residential Waste from I-131 Patients

[Al Tschaeche <antatnsu@pacbell.net>]

We seem again to be schizophrenic about radioactive material outside controlled
areas.  Here we go to all the trouble to issue ANSI N13.12 that defines the
amount of radioactive surface and volume contamination permissible on items
released from controlled areas for uncontrolled use, and then have no standards
for contamination from medical uses for uncontrolled use.  Maybe someone should
suggest to the N13 committee or the Health Physics Society Standards Committee
that such a standard should be written?

I understand that such a standard would not help much in the Indianapolis case
because of the way the incinerator license is written.  But issuing such a
standard would provide a basis for the appropriate license condition for such
incinerators.  Anyone take me up on this?  I am on N13 and could provide
whatever information about that committee you might need.  We probably should do
this off line unless there is great interest by the rest of the radsafe
community.  Al Tschaeche antatnsu@pacbell.

"Richard, Mack L" wrote:

> Most of the municipal and residential waste from the City of Indianapolis is
> disposed via a large, municipal incinerator.  A few years ago, radiation
> detectors were installed to monitor all trucks entering the incineration
> facility.
>
> When the NRC revised the regulations regarding the release of
> radiopharmaceutical therapy patients, the most common being patients treated
> with I-131 for thyroid carcinoma, contaminated residential waste became an
> increasing problem at the incineration facility.  A primary difference
> between residential waste versus hospital waste is that the incineration
> facility cannot determine where the radioactivity came from when the source
> is residential waste.
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