Organisation of the disposal of radioactive sources from Scottish hospitals

An amnesty for disposal of sealed radioactive sources from Scottish hospitals has been funded by the Scottish Executive to address problems arising from accumulation of sources. The contract was awarded to a company involved in radioactive source recycling. Coordination of uplifts from several hospitals allowed considerable financial savings to be made, so source amnesties could offer monetary advantages to Health and Education Departments elsewhere in the UK, as well as alleviating the problem from security and storage of sources that are no longer required. The sources originated in 14 hospitals, but were uplifted from five pick-up points. There were a total of 246 sources with 167 of these being caesium-137. The total activity was 16.2 TBq with one large 16.1 TBq blood irradiator source and the activities of all the other sources adding up to 167 GBq. This paper describes organisation of the collection. Options for achieving compliance with the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 are discussed, although in the event, special authorisations were obtained for each hospital. Arrangements for transport of the sources and source security were drawn up including emergency procedures for dealing with foreseeable incidents. The police provided secure overnight storage for the loaded truck and assistance in directing and monitoring progress of the load.