Conditioning of radium 226 sources in Cuba

The production and use of Ra-226 sealed sources was internationally recommended to be halted for health and safety reasons. Consequently, all Ra-226 sources in Cuba were collected, characterized and conditioned. The paper describes the safety and operational aspects related to the Ra-226 conditionin...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Juan Carlos Benítez Navarro, Mercedes Salgado Mojena, Niurka González Rodríguez, Rafael Castillo Gómez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centro de Gestión de la Información y Desarrollo de la Energía (CUBAENERGIA) 2011-01-01
Series:Nucleus
Subjects:
Online Access:http://nucleus.cubaenergia.cu/index.php/nucleus/article/view/549
Description
Summary:The production and use of Ra-226 sealed sources was internationally recommended to be halted for health and safety reasons. Consequently, all Ra-226 sources in Cuba were collected, characterized and conditioned. The paper describes the safety and operational aspects related to the Ra-226 conditioning. For this, a Special Permission was granted by the Regulatory Body, as required. A radiological assessment, a safety report as well as an emergency plan were prepared and approved before the operations. The work was accomplished with due reliability following an established comprehensive Quality Management System. As a result of these operations, 188.5 GBq of Ra-226, contained in different types of radiation sources (brachytherapy needles and tubes, standard sources for calibration, etc.) were encapsulated and conditioned. The capsules with the sources were conditioned in a retrievable form within fi ve waste packages intended for long term storage.
ISSN:0864-084X
2075-5635