RE: sealed sources

[Dave Derenzo <dave@uic.edu>]

I suggested this because a medical physicist that I know liked to keep 
several brachytherapy sources sealed in a tandem.  When the medical 
physicist argued that taking sources out to inventory them led to more 
exposure, an Illinois Dept of Nuclear Safety rep agreed that sealing the 
tandem would be sufficient and that checking the seal was as good as an 
inventory.

Dave

At 01:51 PM 02/18/2000 -0600, you wrote:
>The sources are I-125 and Pd-103 seeds.  (Tedious to count for inventory!)
>Has anyone else had experience with placing a security seal on a bin in lieu
>of counting sources as Dave Derenzo suggested?
>Thanks for the help!
>
>Tracy Kiellman
>Associate Health Physicist
>
> > What sealed sources have short enough half-lives to be decayed in =
> > storage? Only I-125 seeds come to mind at the moment. But,
> > even so, the =
> > DIS paradigm is generally held only to be applicable to
> > "waste", that is =
> > contaminated gloves, glassware, empty stock vials, etc. The
> > idea is that =
> > the activity you start out with is very small so that it will reach =
> > background after ten half-lives or so.  If you start out with a 10 =
> > millicurie source, say, after ten half-lives you've still got 10 =
> > microcuries, which (hopefully) will be far above your background.=20
> >
> > Your regulator may have objections to placing sources into
> > DIS. I would.
> >
> > **********
> > Clayton Bradt, CHP <raldrich@nysnet.net>        phone: 518/457-1202
> > Assoc. Radiophysicist
> >     fax:   =
> >    518/485-7406
> > NYS Dept. of Labor
> > Radiological Health Unit
> > Blg.12, Rm 169
> > State Office Campus
> > Albany, NY 12240
> > **************************************************************
>
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Dave Derenzo (dave@uic.edu)
UIC Radiation Safety Section, M/C 932
Phones: Voice (312) 996-1177  Fax: (312) 996-8776

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