Re: College Research Campus RSO's

[a.zapantis@qut.edu.au (Alex Zapantis)]

>> 
>> RADSAFers on College Campuses,
>>   Has the issue of security of radioactive materials research laboratories
>> ever been discussed or an issue on your campus?  How do you restrict, in
>> policy, access to your laboratories?  What is the reality of the access?
>> Do non-radioactive materials laboratories have the same policies?  If you
wish
>> to reply directly, email me at OHJCW@UTXDP.DP.UTEXAS.EDU
>

Security is also an issue here at QUT. When I first took up the RSO position
here about 15months ago, the first thing I did was check the inventory of
sources. It didn't take me long to discover that an old accelerator assembly
from a neutron generator containing about 3Ci of tritium in the target was
missing. Despite a thorough search and questioning anyone who would possibly
have known the whereabouts of the source, to this day the assembly is still
missing.

Our regulatory authority took a very dim view of the situation but chose not
to prosecute. However, had it been almost any other isotope in any other
form we would have been in big trouble.

It seems that the assembly had been replaced several years ago and the old
one was just left lying around in a wooden box in the "Neutron Pit". When
the neutron generator was de-commissioned, the area in which it was located
was "orphaned". Hence no one took responsibility for ensuring the security
of the area in which all of the components of the neutron generator
(including the accelerator assemblies) were stored. Who knows how long it
had been missing.

Needless to say, security of RS has been substantially improved since then.
I require that labs be locked when not occupied by an authorised person (ie
key holder), and that all unauthorised personnel be supervised when in a
secure area. 

So far, compliance with this requirement has been very good. Only once have
I walked into an open unoccupied lab. The technician returned about 5
minutes after I arrived explaining that he had gone to the loo and had
forgotten, in his haste, to lock the door.

As far as the tritium source goes, the most likely explanation is that it
was accidentally thrown out during the course of a general cleanup and now
lays buried under several metres of fill in an industrial tip.




                        Alex Zapantis
                        Radiation Safety Officer                               
                        Queensland University of Technology          
                        Health & Safety Section                             
                        Locked Bag No.2
                        Red Hill Qld 4059
                        AUSTRALIA

                        Ph     : 61 7 864 3566
                        fax     : 61 7 864 3993
                        email  : a.zapantis@qut.edu.au