Re: Regulators

[Scott Crail <crail@ENGR.ORST.EDU>]

The reason the president of the Radiation Safety Committee probably made a
big deal out of someone throwing away a box with raioactive label still on
was because of the trouble it could have caused him( and since he reacted,
probably had already caused him).  Solid waste landfills are required to
have radiation detectors at the entrance gates to the landfill and must
educate the employees on the what hazardous material labels mean(and how
to recognize them).  Most heavy equipment operators will recognize a
radiation label and call for help(its really hard to convince them of the
minimal amount of danger).  This means that the landfill must be shut
down, or least alter operations, until an emergency response unit shows up
to do a survey, ect.  The costs involved add up (waste management is big
business) so usually the offending organization was called to come to the
landfill and pick up their boxes.  Probably the person had to drop
everything to go to the landfill and wade through trash (always a joy) to
ensure there wasn't any other labels missed.  After doing this once or
twice, the person who had to wade usually became quite careful about these
problems and at least they were not asked to cover the costs of the
landfill shut down and response team.  It seemed like a fair way to handle
a iratating situation.


Scott Crail
TRIGA operator/Grad Student, OSU
crail@engr.orst.edu