Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap Material in the Czech Republic

1
Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• Zuzana Pašková
• State Office for Nuclear Safety
• Prague, Czech Republic
• International Expert Group Meeting June
  2006,Geneva
• zuzana.paskova_at_sujb.cz

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic
The national system of preventing the loss of
control of radiation sources should be based on
prevention, detection system of seizures,
captures, response to seizures and co-operation
with other state authorities (Police, Fire
Brigades, Custom Service, Emergency Health Care)
and other countries in exchanging information
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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• Czech Republic
• The State Office for Nuclear Safety (SONS) ?
  national
• authority
• nuclear safety
• nuclear items, physical protection of nuclear
  facilities
• radiation protection and emergency preparedness
  of
• nuclear facilities and workplaces handling
  ionizing radiation
• sources

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• Competencies of SONS
• defined by the Atomic Law
• Czech Legislation
• based on ICRP, IAEA recommendation
• fully harmonized with relevant EU legislation and
  IAEA standards
• implements all relevant international agreements
• the last implementation of European Directive of
  High Activity Sealed Sources

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• Czech Republic participates in IAEA Illicit
  Trafficking Database Programme
• SONS represents the governmental Point of
  Contact (for Emergency Events)
• SONS has the duty of keeping the national system
  of registration and control of nuclear material
• national registration system of ionizing
  radiation sources and licensees

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• The main goals of the national register are
• to provide a tool for the central registration of
  sources
• to register each licensee having any relation to
  the registered source
• the registration of reports from the side of
  licensees
• to provide an effective tool for inspectors of
  SONS
• to provide an overview of sources in the country
  and their actual status
• to provide information on the movement of sources
• to provide information for identification in the
  case of abandon sources

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• all regulated data of radiation sources
  (industry, medicine, research) are continually
  updated
• the application of this registration has been
  routine operation since the year 2000
• currently the central register of sources
  contains about 5800 individual sealed
  radionuclide sources and about 600 facilities
  containing such sources

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• In compliance with the Atomic Law
• Everyone who performs the radiation practices is
  liable to
• keep such level of radiation protection so that
  the risk to
• human life, personal health and to the enviroment
  shall be
• kept as low as reasonably achievable taking into
  account
• economic and social factor
• From the above mentioned, it is clear, that all
  the events
• during which radioactive materials are seized,
  should be
• subjected to the next analyses

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• In recent years a number of radioactive
• material seizures has been increased
• mainly due to newly installed technical equipment
  
• (detection system)
• monitoring of metal scrap
• monitoring of waste that enters incinerators
• transport at the state borders (regularly to the
  year
• 2004)

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• 2004
• 90 confirmed events in the Czech Republic
• 38 cases of contaminated metal scrap captured in
  steelworks
• 6 cases of suspicion of lost sources
• 14 natural radionuclides
• 4 Co60 and Sr90, 19 returned abroad

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• 2005
• 52 confirmed events in the Czech Republic
• 19 cases of contaminated metal scrap captured in
  steelworks
• 4 cases of suspicion of lost sources
• 12 natural radionuclides
• 3 Co60, 4 returned abroad
• INES scale - level 1

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• SONS issued the recommendation for procedure for
  radioactive material seizure (the year 2002)
• The goal of recommendation is to specify rules
  for the procedure above-mentioned cases
• This recommendation is mainly intended for the
  customs officers, fire fighters, policemen and
  the persons who handle the secondary raw
  materials and municipal waste
• The principles of recommendation can be applied
  to all other cases of the seizures of
  radionuclide contaminated materials

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• 8 Regional Centers in organizational chart of
• SONS
• Licensing and inspections of sources
• Mobil group radiological events
• special cases of seizure
• Equipment for field detection
• Information of seizures to RC and
• Emergency Point of SONS

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• Experience
• Threat of financial loses push steelworks to
  monitor scrap metal and their production
• Secondary it causes presure to scrap metal
  collectors to monitor scrap metal
• Not enough licensed person for performing the
  radioactive material (sources) localisation,
  unloading,separation from the load,
  identification and analysis

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• Financial support in solving cases of an
• inadvertent movement of radioactive material
• (scrap, chemical agents,..)
• Readiness of licensed persons to serve non stop
• Problem of radioactive sources from military and
• defense programs

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• Conclusion
• 2 levels to solve problems national-
  international
• National level
• to establish adequate measuring system at
  facilities, border, transport,..
• to ensure a system of notification of the
  responsible authorities and persons
• to create decision making scheme for different
  type of illicit trafficking

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Monitoring of Radiologically Contaminated Scrap
Material in the Czech Republic

• International level
• to establish a system of exchanging information
  about the event and other important data