Re: Disposal of Ra into the Sea

[Steve Cima <cima@bellsouth.net>]

Ocean disposal is a controversy alternative.  The IAEA has a program to assist
countries in managing their old radium sources.  I would encourage you to
contact them to see if they can help.

I found  the following article on the Internet at:

http://www.iaea.or.at/worldatom/updates/radsource.html.

Although the long-term disposal issue is unresolved it appears there is
international agreement that these sources can be managed without having to
resort to ocean disposal.

  Safe storage of radiation sources

                              An IAEA-supported team of experts is working in
South America to help
                              countries safely manage radiation sources, in
this case radium. Specifically,
                              experts are carrying out technical activities to
condition radium sources for
                              safe storage. With financial support from the
United States, the first radium
                              conditioning operation has been carried out in
Uruguay by an
                              IAEA-supported expert team from Brazil. In total,
59 GBq (1586 mg) of
                              radium was conditioned in 31 stainless steel
capsules emplaced in lead
                              shields and finally placed in four specially
prepared 200 liter drums for safe
                              interim storage. In addition to its support of
expert teams to condition radium
                              sources, the IAEA is also providing detailed
technical information on the
                              conditioning operations and expert advice to
national conditioning teams.

                              Radium sources have been used for almost 100
years, primarily for cancer
                              treatment. Since the sources have unfavorable
characteristics, they have
                              been replaced with other radiation sources and
now almost all countries
                              have stopped their use. The IAEA has estimated
that there are about 30,000
                              spent radium sources which need to be taken care
of, many of those in
                              developing Member States. Due to the long
half-life of radium, the sources
                              eventually need to be disposed of in deep
geological repositories, which
                              seem not to be available for many years to come.

                              For many years, the IAEA has been giving advice
on how conditioning of
                              spent radium sources for storage can be done,
with the view of their eventual
                              disposal. However, it is recognized that many
countries do not have the
                              technical infrastructure needed to ensure that
the conditioning operation can
                              be done in a proper way. To accelerate the
progress, the IAEA is
                              implementing a new approach: hands-on assistance
to those developing
                              Member States which have terminated their use of
radium sources. In this
                              approach, all identified spent radium sources in
a country will be collected
                              and treated in one single campaign by an expert
team, thereby solving the
                              immediate national problem with spent radium
sources.

                              The radium conditioning concept (which is
described in IAEA-TECDOC-886)
                              is based on enclosing and sealing the radium
sources in stainless steel
                              capsules which are placed in a shielded storage
container. This ensures
                              safety of the sources for a storage period of at
least 40 years. If necessary,
                              the capsules can be easily and safely retrieved
for further conditioning prior
                              to disposal in deep geological repositories.

Good Luck!

Steve Cima
University of Florida
cima@bellsouth.net


Malek Chatila wrote:

> Greetings to all,
> I am a nuclear engineer (Ph.D. candidate) who is currently working as a
> Health Physicist, Assistant Radiation Safety Officer at the American
> University of Beirut (Lebanon).  We are currently negotiating with an
> American company to properly dispose of our old radium needles/tubes that
> have total activity of around 250 mg.  One of our certified medical
> physicists proposed a method to dispose of the radium needles/tubes into
> the sea.  Moreover, he described his method as placing the tubes/needles in
> an acid container and then dropping the resulting liquid into the sea.
> Please advice on the current U.S. or international regulations that address
> this issue.  Is such disposal forbidden?  Please also advice on the
> environmental impact of such a behavior.  I would appreciate frank answers.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Malek Chatila
> American University of Beirut
> Email: mc02@aub.edu.lb
> Fax: 011-961-749-198
> Phone: 011-961-749-199
>
> ************************************************************************
> The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
> information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html



************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html