Importation of Radioactive Sources from Russia

[John Harvey <harveyj@mcmail.CIS.McMaster.CA>]

This message is posted on behalf of a researcher who does not subscribe to
Radsafe but would like the benefit of your collective wisdom and
experience. We recently successfully imported a Cd-109 source from a
Russian supplier, but the Canadian and American regulations differ and I
have not been able to be of much assistance in assisting her to also
import a source.

To quote from her: "Yes, I'll take you up on your offer to put out an info
APB on RADSAFE! Not only is ours an odd case in that we're importing from
Russia, but there's no institutional memory on how to handle import of
radionuclides from any company not on the list of certified manufacturers. 
[This was previously governed by federal regulations, but we're now under
state regulations and our group is apparently charting new waters for the
hospital.] If any of your RADSAFE respondents are familiar with
Massachusetts state regulations and/or US federal customs regulations,
especially re importation from not-yet-listed manufacturers, I'd most
appreciate hearing from them."

If you could be of assistance, please reply to:
Gail Fleischaker at regrf@gauss.bwh.harvard.edu

As always, your advice is appreciated.
=======================================================================
John Harvey                            | McMaster University
Senior Health Physicist                | NRB-110
(905) 525-9140 ext 24226               | 1280 Main St. W.
harveyj@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca         | Hamilton, Ont Canada L8S 4K1