International experts meeting in Spain say that further steps are needed to protect people from radioactive material that can end up at junk and scrap yards.
One step is to harmonize the world's regulatory approaches to radiation safety, based on IAEA safety standards already in place. Another step is to provide better guidance to regulators, scrap dealers, and metal recycling industries on how to deal with problems when they occur.
The presence of inadvertent radioactive materials in metal scrap is a recurring worldwide problem for the metal recycling industry, experts noted in presentations at the conference in Tarragona, Spain. The materials can pose potentially severe health, environmental, and financial consequences for the industry and the public alike.
"In the last three years the IAEA has become aware of around 500 events involving uncontrolled ionizing radiation sources, about 150 of which were related to sources found in scrap metal or contaminated goods or materials," says Eliana Amaral, Director of the IAEA's Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety.
"This is clearly a global problem that requires the application of a harmonized approach throughout the different regions of the world involving all stakeholders."
Representatives from international agencies, national nuclear regulators, and the nuclear and the scrap metal recycling industries are meeting this week to agree on how to apply the tools provided by the global nuclear safety regime to this issue.
"The existing elements of the global nuclear safety regime, when properly applied to the control and management of inadvertent radioactive material in scrap metal, are sufficient to prevent accidents and incidents from happening and to manage detected radioactive materials in ways that protect people and the environment and minimize social and economic consequences," says Didier Louvat, Head of the IAEA's Waste and Environmental Safety Section.
Spain, the conference host country, is an active contributor to international efforts in nuclear radiation safety. The so-called Spanish Protocol, a voluntary agreement between industry and government that was developed in response to the 1998 Acerinox incident, which involved the undetected melting of a Cesiusm-137 source in a steel recycling facility, has been presented as an example of best practices for the industry.
"We consider the application of the Spanish Protocol as highly satisfactory. The interest and positive appraisal expressed by the international community confirms our impression," says Francisco Fernàndez-Moreno, Commissioner of the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN).
The scope of the protocol involves the detection and monitoring of radioactivity in the storage facilities and industries where scrap metal is collected and handled. Key elements include creating a register of ascribed companies, monitoring material at the entrance of the facilities as well as the final products and waste, and establishing actions to be taken when radioactivity is detected.
A large portion of the scrap metal that is consumed annually is traded internationally, and may originate in one country and be transported long distances before being processed in another country. As such, a harmonized regulatory approach to the issue of inadvertent radioactive material in scrap metal would also have the benefit of facilitating trade, especially of materials originating from the demolition or decommissioning of nuclear installations or other facilities.
Over 300 participants from a total of 62 countries are taking part in the five-day International Conference on Control and Management of Inadvertent Radioactive Material in Scrap Metal. The event is being organized by Spain's CSN in cooperation with the IAEA.
Background
There are two main types of radioactive material that may be found in scrap metal. The first type is orphan sources or radioactively contaminated material that may have been lost from, or never were, under regulatory control.
The second one is radioactively contaminated material, which may occur in a number of ways, the most likely being from the demolition or decommissioning of a nuclear installation or other facilities that has used radioactive material.
The 1987 Goiânia accident in Brazil was the worst accident involving a radioactive source that the world has seen. Cesium chloride from a dumped source that had ended up in a scrap yard spread undetected for over two weeks. Some 250 people were contaminated and four died in the first month.
The event immediately focused international attention on the issue of safety standards for radioactive sources. However, it was years before the implementation of a harmonized approach to the process of scrap metal recycling was discussed.