Safety and security management of disused sealed radioactive sources in Thailand

Abstract

When sealed radioactive sources are no longer in use, they should be returned back to the country of origin. However, most of them could not be returned to the origin; therefore, disused sealed radioactive sources (DSRS) have to be managed locally to ensure the safety and the security for long term storage before final disposal. The Radioactive Waste Management Center, Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology, is authorized to operate the treatment, conditioning and storage of DSRS in Thailand. This paper will describe the operational procedures on characterization technique, identifation of unknown sources, volume reduction technique, re-packaging, registration and record keeping of DSRS. The successful results included that the record keeping of DSRS has been developed, and the national inventory of stored DSRS has been made up to date. The results confirmed that the quality control at the DSRS storage facility at Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology was established and well implemented to ensure safe and secure management.