Risk Equivalent Radiation Dose (RERD)-for policy decisions

A unifying concept of radiation dose should be used to express the total health risk from exposure to radiation and chemicals. For example, many chemical pollutants we come across in day-to-day life and in industrial releases are carcinogenic. The risk factors (risk per unit exposure) are assessed by different agencies and are known. Carcinogenic risk from radiation is also well known.

Thus, it is possible to add up the chemical risks due to known amount of exposures or intakes (=measured concentration of the pollutant multiplied by the time period of exposure), and the risk from radiation exposure (=radiation dose rate multiplied by the time period of exposure) to get the total risks of cancer due to radiation and chemical pollutants in any given environment.

The total risk can be expressed in terms of the total Risk Equivalent Radiation Dose (RERD).

This can be conveniently employed by the policy makers to take decisions based on health detriment, due to a decision, say, to build a type of power plant, nuclear, thermal or hydro.

Mobile hot cell for handling highly radioactive sources

The IAEA has conceived an idea of employing mobile hot cell facility to handle radioactive sources in developing countries. The idea was successfully employed for the first time in a real field operation in Sudan in early May to process high-activity disused radioactive sources. This was the first operation of its kind undertaken by IAEA in a developing country.

Disused/decayed high-activity radioactive sources, used for diagnosing and treating medical patients, sterilizing blood and medical appliances or protecting stored crops, need to be handled before its safe disposal. Unlike in developed countries, developing countries may not have the specialized infra-structure for handling such sources.

The project in Sudan was performed at the radioactive waste storage site of the country´s Atomic Energy Commission. The inventory included disused sources that had been used in research and medical teletherapy machines containing high-activity Cobalt 60 sources. Inside the mobile hot cell, the disused radioactive sources were removed from the original equipment and transferred into a stronger storage container that was designed for their safe and secure storage.

The creation of the mobile hot cell and its successful operation illustrates an excellent example of technical cooperation between developing countries. It is an opportunity to extend disused source recovery and conditioning work to cover other developing countries (source: IAEA News).