Conditioning of Radioactive Sources in Montenegro - IAEA Mission in June 2014
In June 2014, the IAEA helped Montenegro to prepare over 90 radioactive sources for safe and secure storage. These sealed sources were contained in devices that were used primarily for lightning rods.
Lightning rods are used to protect buildings from lightning strikes by diverting lightening harmlessly to the ground. In the past, such rods were manufactured to include a radioactive source.
If stolen or damaged, sealed sources could be dangerous to the public and the environment. Therefore Montenegro decided to remove them. In total 71 such devices were removed.
They were brought to Montenegro's national radioactive waste storage facility in Podgorica. Over ten days, Croatian radioactive waste management experts, contracted by the IAEA, worked alongside the facility's own experts to condition the sources.
The conditioning process prepares disused sealed radioactive sources for safe and secure storage and ultimately disposal. At the facility 93 devices containing radioactive sources were stored. These included smoke detectors and devices that had been used in industry.
Long-term storage of such devices without proper conditioning of the radioactive sources they contain can pose a safety and security risk. In addition, the devices themselves take up a lot of space and can be damaged by corrosion.
For the conditioning mission the team, under the guidance of the IAEA, set up a temporary shielded installation in which the sources could be safely removed.
Each individual device was brought to the installation and first controlled for surface contamination. In Montenegro IAEA Radioactive Waste Technology expert, Janos Balla, was in charge of the mission.
The devices, such as the lightening rod heads, needed to be dismantled to remove the source holder.
These holders were placed into the shielded installation.
The holder was carefully unscrewed in order to release the sealed source, which is a small capsule that contains a very high concentration of radioactive material. Such sources are widely used in medicine and industry.
This small, silver capsule is the "bare source". This means it has been removed from its protective holder, but is still sealed.
For all removed sources it was necessary to identify the type of radionuclide contained in the source for the inventory.
The serial number of the sealed source was also noted, alongside details of the dose rate and radioactivity of the radionuclide it contained. Such inventories are essential to ensure the safe storage of such materials and to facilitate their disposal.
Storage capsules like this one were used to store the disused sources after conditioning. Such a capsule can hold several sources.
In order to transfer the bare source safely to the final storage container, it needed to be placed first into a transfer container.
The source was then placed in the storage capsule. This was enclosed in a further, larger capsule that was protected with a temporary working shield.
Once the conditioning capsule was full, it was moved into the long-term storage container. Once a suitable disposal site is established this container will be moved to this site.
A long-term storage container can hold several capsules, greatly reducing the amount of space needed to store disused sealed radioactive sources.
The old devices that contained the sealed sources could be handled like conventional waste after the conditioning process was completed. They were not radioactive.
(This mission was conducted under the IAEA Technical Cooperation project Strengthening Cradle-to-Grave Control of Radioactive Sources in the Mediterranean Region (INT/9/176)).
(This project is co-funded by the European Union, the USA and Spain).
