End of Life Decisions for Sealed Radioactive Sources

Sealed radioactive sources are encountered in a wide variety of settings-from household smoke detectors and instrument check sources through fixed industrial gauges, industrial radiography, and well logging sources, to irradiators and medical teletherapy devices. In general, the higher the level of activity in the sealed source, the stricter the regulatory control that is applied to its use, control, and ultimate disposition. Lower levels of attention and oversight can and do lead to sources ending up in the wrong place--as orphan sources in uncontrolled storage, disposed in a sanitary landfill, melted down in metal recycling operations and incorporated into consumer products, or handled by an unsuspecting member of the public. There is a range of issues that contribute to the problem of improper disposal of sealed sources and, in particular, to disused source disposal. Generally licensed sources and devices are particularly at risk of being disposed incorrectly. Higher activity generally licensed sources, although required to be registered with the (NRC) or an Agreement State, receive limited regulatory oversight and are not tracked on a national scale. Users frequently do not consider the full life-cycle costs when procuring sources or devices and discover that they cannot afford and/or are unwilling to pay the associated costs to package, transport and dispose of their sources properly. The NRC requirements for decommissioning funding plans and financial assurance are not adequate to cover sealed source transport and disposal costs fully. While there are regulatory limits for storage of disused sources, enforcement is limited, and there are only limited financial incentives in a small number of states for owners to dispose of the sources. In some cases, the lack of availability of approved Type B shipping casks presents an additional barrier to sealed source disposal. The report of the Disused Sources Working Group does an excellent job of framing these issues (www.disusedsources.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DSWG-Report-March-2014.pdf). This article reviews both the issues and the report's recommendations, which are designed to improve sealed source control and encourage proper disposal of disused sources.