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Dear John,
Yes, I agree about lost of sources, not in USA the loss
of sources occur, however I do believe that this case should be
extended to the total number of countries. The fact of USA, is that the
country is an open country that publish all such cases, while the great
majority of countries, developed or developing, do not.
a) It is possible to have a good idea about
U.S. control reading the paper that
Commissioner Greta Joy Dicus presented
in Japan, IRPA 10, May 2000
AN OVERVIEW OF MANAGING THE U.S. RADIATION PROTECTION PROGRAM CONCERNING GENERALLY-LICENSED SOURCES AND DEVICES "Currently, in the United
States (U.S.), there are about 1.8 million devices in use today that contain
varying, but limited amounts of radioactive material. These devices are
authorized for possession, use, or storage by about 150,000 “general licensees.”
Because of the relatively small radiation risk imposed by these devices, the
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) did not establish
routine a contact or inspection program for these general licensees. Based on
data received by the NRC, approximately 375 sources or devices of varying risk
have been reported lost or stolen per year in the U.S. Although the number of
reported lost devices has decreased over recent years (NRC data indicates that
286 reports were received in 1999), the NRC has
become increasingly concerned about occurrences where generally-licensed devices
have not been handled or disposed of properly because of the potential for
public exposure or contamination of property."
"Since
1983, U.S. steel mills accidentally melted radioactive sources on 20 occasions
and radioactive sources have been accidentally melted at other metal mills on 10
other occasions."
"For a
smelting event involving a large radiation source (believed to not be a
generally licensed device) one U.S.steel mills incurred an average cost of
approximately US$ ten million, while yet in another case the cost approached US$
23 million."
...................
I do believe there is not difficulty to
Radsafers to get such paper, anyhow if this willnot be case and to those
interest I can send by separate e-mail.
b) You are
correct about my examples of lost of sources, most of the mentioned accident
were with industrial radiography sources, excepted the Accident in
Thailand, source of Co-60, activity 750Ci, source was recoverd
and in Istanbul 3 sources about 90 Ci, 640 Ci and 580 Ci
(one source 640 Ci was not found and still is missing);
Both accident with acute clinical
consequences, and 3 death (Thailand) from exposure.
In the Accident in Thailand, it
was the breakage of the radiotherapy heads. If the source in
Thailand instead of metalic form was in the form of CsCl, as Goiania, the
consequences would be higher, due also contamination.Jose
Israel
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