British Journal of Radiology (2004) 77, 977
© 2004 British Institute of Radiology
doi:
Managing potentially radioactive scrap metal, NCRP Report No. 141. By NRCP, pp x + 224, 2002 (NCRP, Bethesda, MD), $45.00 ISBN 0-929600-74-6
P H Burgess
This report is published by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements in the USA. The initial observation has to be that it sees the problem, quite rightly, from the point of view of someone doing business in the USA. Unfortunately, from the UK point of view, this means that any reference to law and regulation is not useful. However, it is otherwise an extremely useful document for any person or organization with the potential to wish to either dispose of, or purchase, potentially radioactive scrap metal. It is well written and achieves a high level of clarity throughout.
After an introduction, it moves on to sources, inventories and characteristics of potentially radioactive scrap metal. This covers mainly reactors, fuel manufacture and reprocessing facilities, but it also covers accelerators and facilities involved with naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM). The next section opens with a summary of current USA laws, regulations and policies but then broadens out into sections on characterization of materials and storage and disposal options, closing with a good summary of management options.
One topic that is under serious discussion in the European Union is the development of release standards. At the moment, the USA regulators have not adopted any standard. In the UK, we mainly use the Substances of Low Activity Exemption Order under the Radioactive Substances Act, which is set at 0.4 Bq g–1 for the majority of nuclides, independent of half-life or general radiotoxicity. This document reviews the various approaches world-wide and the means to model the impact of release into the world. In common with many groups, it proposes a dose based approach of a limit of 10 µSv per year to the most exposed individual. It will be interesting to see whether this value is adopted widely.
There are further sections on radiation protection in metal recycling, protection against orphan sources and a general summary. Following this, there are appendices on metal making technology, which I found fascinating, and on detection techniques, mainly devoted to bulk monitoring at the gates of scrap yards and steel mills.
All in all, if you are involved in any way with the handling, disposal or processing of scrap metal, this will be a very useful reference.
