Re: Apparent Illegal Shipment

[BLHamrick@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 2/13/2004 8:36:14 AM Pacific Standard Time, 

idias@interchange.ubc.ca writes:

This is probably some NORM. Several years ago there was a rail car with

recycled scrape pipes, etc going back and forth between Fort Nelson and the

recycle yard in Prince George, BC. The recycle yard was rejecting it because

it alarmed their monitors but the oil company did not know it was

radioactive. I was doing a contract with Petro Canada at the time and found

out that there is no clear regulatory limits for NORM, or TENORM as the ANSI

committee prefers to call it.

It may also be the result of residential waste from the home of a patient 

recently receiving treatment or diagnosis using RAM.  Los Angeles County responds 

to over 50 of these alarms a year at landfills.  Over 95% are I-131 or other 

nuclear medicine isotope.  It's expensive, a waste of resources, and 

disgusting (to dig through the waste).  I'd rather these facilities got themselves a 

simple portable spec system, set up the library to have ONLY nuclear medicine 

isotopes, and only call for assistance if it is NOT one of those, otherwise the 

safest thing to do is just bury the load.



Barbara