Re: Anyone know about this?

["Jim Hardeman" <Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us>]

Barbara *



Yeah, we've run into a few of those thorium lenses as well. We've also got a somewhat unique situation here in Georgia involving scrap metal originating from our kaolin mills ... there's one point in the process where a radium "scale" forms and deposits on the inside of stainless steel piping ... and these things have an annoying tendency of winding up in scrap metal facilities. This situation is somewhat akin to the oil and gas pipe scale that our friends in Texas and Louisiana (predominantly) are dealing with. We've worked closely with the industry, and dramatically reduced the frequency ... but these things still occasionally make it through.



In the past few years, we've also found aircraft switches with radium paint on them ... substantial numbers of radium gauges in surplus military vehicles ... the occasional DU source ... and yes, we've even found a few gauges that somehow made their way to scrap facilities (just to name a few). Fun, fun, fun ... but it DOES suck up the resources ... that 0.6 FTE that I referenced in my previous e-mail is slightly less than 10% of our total staff commitment ... and the personnel resources required by these incident responses gets larger every year. Plus, every 1-2 years, we run into an incident that requires substantial followup ... anywhere from weeks to (in the case of the RSI source leak) years.



In general, when we find I-131 at a landfill, we normally attribute it to patient household waste ... but when we find Tc-99m (which we WERE, and to some extent, still ARE) at landfills, we have to attribute it to the facilities administering the Tc-99m, and not so much to the patient. Needless to say, our licensing / inspection folks aren't too happy about this. We had this problem in Atlanta a few years back and "nipped it in the bud" ... but now we're seeing it in other parts of the state ... so they're getting ready to rekindle some "discussions" with their licensees.



It wouldn't be so bad if "the powers that be" would let us do our jobs, but every now and then, one of these incidents gets reported to the feds (National Response Center, etc.) and before you know it, a routine incident has taken on monumental proportions ... as if the leaders of our country couldn't sleep at night unless their certain that those that wish us evil hadn't unleashed a dirty bomb on some of the least populated areas of our state.



Somehow or another, some "sanity" has to be brought back into this business. Every time somebody finds some radioactive material where they don't think it should be, we can't treat it as a national emergency. It would help, as has been pointed out repeatedly in this forum, if first responders would reach out to radiation safety professionals at the local or state level. Our number is plastered all over the state ...



As always, my $0.02 worth ...



Jim



>>> <BLHamrick@aol.com> 1/29/2005 12:18:25 >>>

 

In a message dated 1/28/2005 1:45:59 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  

Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us writes:



Obviously you haven't been hanging around in Georgia. We're  still

experiencing landfill incidents to the tune of at least one per  month

... it used to be they were in metro Atlanta (i.e. right around  the

corner) ... but lately, the landfill incidents each require a MINIMUM  of

2 person-days to drive down, monitor, drive back ... and they  average

about 4 person-days. When you consider contaminated scrap  metal

incidents on top of those we're looking at an incident every 1-2  weeks

on the average. We did a rough calculation for my management  regarding

staff utilization ... turns out we can DOCUMENT about 0.6 FTE in  2004

directly related to incidents at scrap yards, recycling facilities  and

yes, landfills ... and I don't think our experience is atypical of  other

states.



California still experiences a high number of these alarms as well.   In a 

review of incidents over the last few years, more than 98% were from  diagnostic 

and therapeutic medical procedures, and consisted primarily of  household 

waste generated by the patient.  The other 2% were relatively  insignificant 

events involving odds and ends, such as a thorium-coated lens  (exempt).

 

Barbara



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