Re: Exempt quantities

["J. J. Rozental" <joseroze@netvision.net.il>]

I am sorry to send again a small contribution to this typical American
discussion (because only refer to American Regulation), to recommend again
the IAEA TECDOC 1000 - Clearance of Materials from the Use of Radionuclides
in medicine, industry and Research, February 1998.
This document explains the concept of the sources that do not enter the
regulatory control, i.e. control is never imposed (referred to as exemption)
and the sources that are released from regulatory control, i.e. control are
no longer exercised (referred as clearance). Cleared materials should not
become subject of regulatory control again and, therefore, clearance levels
will never exceed exemption levels.

The document inform (Based on the IAEA Basic Safety Standards, Safety Series
115)

A practice or a source within a practice may be exempted (or cleared)
without further consideration provided that the following criteria are met
in all feasible situations:

a) The effective dose expected to be incurred by any member of the public
due to the practice or source is of the order of 10 microSv or less in a
year, and

b) Either the collective effective dose committed by one year of the
performance of the practice is no more than about 1 man.Sv or an assessment
for the optimization of protection shows the exemption is the optimum
option.

Generally TECDOC has no cost, to those interested ask information at the
IAEA Public Information Division
Official.mail@iaea.org

Jose Julio Rozental
joseroze@netvision.net.il
Israel


************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html