Re: Radioisotope Inventories

["Jim F. Herrold" <HERROLD@UWYO.EDU>]

To Sue Dupre at Princeton:

Here at the University of Wyoming the cornerstone of our rad inventory system
is centralized purchasing, ordering, delivery and disposal by the Radiation
Safety personnel. Without this, I don't know how we would keep track of over
forty principal users campuswide. Briefly, this is the system:

1.	P.I. submits request for order to Radiation Safety.
2.	If the P.I. is authorized to use the radionuclide and does not exceed
	his/her limit, request is authorized by RSO.
3.	An open purchase order for each company is issued each month. Orders
	are consolidated each week (if possible) to save on shipping.
4.	Packages are delivered to Radiation Safety to be wipe tested and
	inventoried, then delivered to user. The delivery form gives the P.I.
	their current balance as listed in RSO computer.
5.	When the P.I. requests rad waste disposal, they show their current
	balance on the waste request form. This balance is compared to the RSO
	computer to see if they agree. Discrepancies are ironed out.
6.	At the end of the month each department is billed through IDR.

Through this series of checks and balances, both the Radiation Safety Office
and the users keep track of each other's inventory systems to minimize
mistakes. Decay corrections are encouraged, but not required. If the inventory
amounts are artificially high because of short half-lives, it gives a built-in
safety factor to keep the university from going over its licensed limit.
Incidentally, all decays and transfers between users must also be sent through
Radiation Safety for approval. Centralized purchasing not only makes
inventory and control easier, but it also eliminates many duplicated purchase
orders, which cost the university a bundle to process.

Hope this helps

Jim Herrold, RSO
University of Wyoming