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Re: Transportation of RAM to be used in a remote location

(1)  Assuming that the I-125 is licensed material, if you are transporting 
this material either "outside the site of usage" or on a "public highway", 
10CFR71.5(b) requires that you meet DOT standards even though DOT regulations 
may strictly apply only to material carried by motor vehicle.  Is your NRC 
inspector aware that you're doing this?  (These regulations permit you to 
request a waiver.) 
 
(2) To not follow the shipping paper, labeling, emergency response, training, 
... requirements imposes an unacceptable risk on the public.  Among the many 
scenarios that come to mind:  the "carrier" is hit by a motor vehicle, the 
carrier becomes incapacitated for whatever reason, or  the carrier drops the 
container.   
 
The opinions expressed are strictly mine. 
Here's to a risk free world, and other fantasies. 
 
Bill Lipton 
liptonw@detroitedison.com




On 22 Sep 97 at 7:14, LIPTONW@detroitedison.com wrote:
> 
> Even if this weren't illegal, it's one of the dumbest things I've
> ever heard.  

I have a choice of taking 10 mCi (37 mBq) I-125 sealed 
sources, placing them in a shielded container, and carrying them by 
walking about 1 mile to a remote facility; 

OR

I can place the sources in a shielded container that has met the DOT 
Specification 7A requirements and that I have documentation of such, 
survey the package for removable contamination (sealed sources, 
remember), survey the package for external exposure levels (I-125 in 
a lead shield), document the survey, label the package with a 
Radioactive White I, mark the package with the type of 
package and the destination address, prepare a shippping paper, buy 
(and maintain) a motor vehicle, hand carry the package to the parking 
lot,  secure the package in a cargo area of the motor vehicle, drive 
one mile through busy city streets, hand carry the package from the 
parking lot to the destination, and survey the package upon arrival 
at its destination for removable contamination.

Two questions, which is safer; and which is dumber?

Kent N. Lambert, M.S., CHP
lambert@auhs.edu
Allegheny University of the Health Sciences
Hahnemann Division
Radiation Physics and Safety, MS 106
Broad and Vine Streets
Philadelphia, PA  19102-1192

215-762-8768 (voice)
215-762-7683 (fax)  

Disclaimer:  All opinions are well reasoned and insightful.
Needless to say, they are not (necessarily) the opinions of my employer.