Re: Shipping to Scotland

[Dave Derenzo <dave@uic.edu>]

In essence, yes.  I believe you would be more correct to say that if the 
activity is below 2 nCi per gram, that it would fall outside of the DOT 
definition of radioactive material, therefore rules for shipping 
radioactive material would not apply.

Dave Derenzo

At 10:24 AM 11/22/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Barbara wrote: "Not to throw a wrench in the matter, but if the material
>were less than 2 nCi
>per gram, it would be "exempt" per DOT, right?"
>
>Barbara L. Hamrick
>--------------
>
>What is accepted in USA no necessarly can be accepted by other countries.
>The value of the early's 50 of 2 nCi per gram (70 Bq/g) is an example.
>The transport regulations have always contained an exemption criterion which
>defined materials subject to their requirements. The current regulations
>define radioactive material as any material having a specific activity
>greater than 70 Bq/g. The IAEA Basic Safety Standards (BSS), Safety Series
>115, 1996, however, use a radionuclide-specific approach which leads to
>derived exemption values spanning seven orders of magnitude, and straddling
>70 Bq/g in the case of activity concentration. The BSS also present
>exemption values for total activity quantities (Bq).
>
>It was recognized that the single exemption level of 70 Bq/g has no dose
>basis and that it was unlikely that this level satisfied the primary dose
>criteron of 10 microsievert in a year for exemption for all radionuclides. A
>set of transport-specific scenarios were developed which reflected various
>exposure situations (exposure times, distances, source geometries, etc.).
>Based on these scenarios, both activity concentration and total activity
>values were calculated which would result in meeting the 10 microsievert per
>year value. These transport derived values were comparable to the exemption
>values in the BSS and resulted in recommended activity concentrations
>ranging from 1 to 10E6 Bq/g.
>
>Given the difficulty in technically justifying the 70 Bq/g value and the
>similarity in results from the transport scenarios and the BSS scenarios, it
>was determined to be preferable to simply adopt the BSS derived exemption
>values. Consequently, the regulations contain both activity concentration
>and "total activity per consignment" exemption values. For mixtures of
>radionuclides, the "ratio rule" must be applied so that the sum of the activ
>ities (or activity concentrations) present for each radionuclide divided by
>the applicable exemption value is less than or equal to one.
>
>Jose Julio Rozental
>joseroze@netvision.net.il
>Israel
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <BLHamrick@aol.com>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
>Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2000 5:38 AM
>Subject: Re: Shipping to Scotland
>
>
>In a message dated 11/21/2000 10:33:50 AM Pacific Standard Time,
>RoyAParker@compuserve.com writes:
>
><< You are  the victim  of terminology.   Exempt  quantity  of  radioactive
>  material is  a licensing  term and not a transportation term.  There are
>  exempt quantities  of all other transportation hazard classes except for
>  explosives and radioactive materials.
>
>  You are  meaning excepted package, limited quantity of material.  In the
>  transportation world there is a big difference. >>
>
>Not to throw a wrench in the matter, but if the material were less than 2
>nCi
>per gram, it would be "exempt" per DOT, right?
>
>Barbara L. Hamrick
>BLHamrick@aol.com
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Dave Derenzo, MPH  (dave@uic.edu)
Associate Director for Radiation Safety
University of Illinois at Chicago
Radiation Safety Section, MC932
820 S. Wood St., Chicago, IL 60612-7314
Voice:(312)996-7429  Fax:(312)996-8776
URL:  http://www.uic.edu/depts/envh

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