Management of Disused Sealed Sources in Austria - 12147

Conference · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012

OSTI ID:22293453

Fischer, Helmut ^[1]

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1. Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, Radiation Protection Division, Vienna (Austria)

The use of sealed radiation sources is regulated by the Austrian Radiation Protection Act and the General Radiation Protection Ordinance. The Austrian radiation protection legislation requires minimisation of radioactive waste. The preferred radioactive waste management option concerning sealed sources, both spent and disused, is the return to the manufacturer. If this is not possible a reuse by a third party is encouraged. According to this requirement, disused sealed sources shall, as far as possible, be stored on the site of the licence holder until a new owner is found. If this is not possible, disused sealed sources shall be transported to Nuclear Engineering Seibersdorf, which is a recognised storage facility for radioactive waste in Austria, for temporary storage pending reuse. Sources, which cannot be reused, are declared as radioactive waste. Since Austria is a Member State of the European Union, the Council Directive 122/2003/Euratom on High Activity Sealed Sources and Orphan Sources is applied. This directive defines high activity sealed sources on the basis of their total activity. The possession of such sources is subject to certain obligations. Therefore it is in the interest of the owner to return disused sources as soon as possible to the manufacturer or to deliver them to Nuclear Engineering Seibersdorf. In case of the loss and finding of an 'orphan' source the competent authority secures, recovers and stores the source at the cost of the owner of the source with recourse. In line with the directive the licensee of a High Activity Sealed Source has to notify the main data concerning this source to the Central Source Register which is maintained by the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management for all radioactive sources. This register was put into operation in 2006. (authors)

• Research Organization: WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9-332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 22293453
• Report Number(s): INIS-US--14-WM-12147
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR ENGINEERING
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SEALED SOURCES
STORAGE FACILITIES