Disposing of old LSC's

[Al Castellane <castella@ohsu.edu>]

I'm sure this has come up at other facilities and would like to know if anyone
might have the answer. When a liquid scintillation counter (LSC) is to be
disposed, who is responsible for taking care of the source? 
We had a situation a few years back where our surplus property sold one to a
scrap dealer. He found the labeled source container in the machine and promptly
notified the State, who promptly notified us to get the source. We then drove
out and pulled the source.
Is the vendor leagally responsible to take the source out of their own machine
prior to disposal? Do they do it for free? Can I remove the source(legally)?
Any help and/or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Al Castellane
Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland Or.
castella@ohsu.edu