Nuclear mattersNRC seeks tighter oversight of often-lost radioactive devices

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to apply stronger oversight to frequently lost radioactive devices — items a Scripps Media investigation found have been recycled into metal used to manufacture consumer and other products.

For years, the metal industry has asked the government to do a better job regulating items containing radioactive isotopes, such as X-ray machines, industrial sensors, and gauges. Scripps Howard’s Isaac Wolf writes that in the past, however, federal authorities have been resistant, saying extra oversight wouldn’t be worth the cost. The new proposal, published 3 August in the Federal Register, would expand that oversight, giving federal and state officials more muscle by stiffening regulations on almost 2,000 items — mostly industrial gauges containing radioactive material. Extra scrutiny would help cut down on lost material, government and private industry experts say.

The Metals Industry Recycling Coalition “believes that the stricter controls and greater stewardship associated with specific licensing are critical to ensuring that sources are properly managed from cradle to grave,” spokesman John Wittenborn said Wednesday. Wittenborn, though, said more action — such as the expansion of a nationwide tracking system — is needed to prevent radioactive material from entering the scrap-metal pipeline.

The NRC proposal would cover only a tiny fraction of the approximately 2 million radioactive devices in factories, hospitals, research facilities, and other places nationwide. Of those, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates up to 500,000 of those devices are unaccounted for.

NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko called the new rules an important step that would help protect against such cast off radioactive materials being used by terrorists to make a dirty bomb. “I believe this proposed rule is a positive step forward in increasing the accountability of these materials” NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko said in a statement Wednesday on the proposed rule, which his agency characterized as a way to protect against the radioactive materials being used by terrorists to make a dirty bomb.

Wolf notes that the NRC action this week comes after a Scripps Howard News Service investigation in June showed how radioactive isotopes like Cobalt-60 and Cesium-137 in those cast off machines and sensors regularly become blended with other metal scrap, which then is used to manufacture everyday products including recliner chairs, women’s handbags, shovels, elevator buttons, and fencing wire.

Compounding the problem is the absence of rules requiring recycling or metal companies to screen scrap for radioactivity or to report it when found, as well as the lack of a single government authority in charge of tracking the discovery and disposal of the tainted material, the SHNS investigation found.

A Scripps Television Station Group investigation around the United States found additional evidence of a broken system.

NRC spokesman David McIntyre said the rule proposed this week would take effect “sometime late next year.”

The new proposal is a step toward fixing the oversight gap that critics have complained about for years, but it also reflects an evolution in the importance the NRC has placed on cast off radioactive devices containing relatively small amounts of deadly isotopes. The agency’s new chairman, Gregory Jaczko, told Wolf on 7 July that such low-level radioactive items are not a significant danger. The estimated 500,000 out-of-use items “don’t pose a high risk at all to public health and safety,” Jaczko said. “So our focus has been on looking at those highest-risk sources and making sure that we’re able to maintain and track those sources effectively.”

Now, however, the NRC is including more devices in its sights. “A licensee’s loss of control of radioactive sources, whether it be inadvertent or through a deliberate act, could result in significant health impacts, which could constitute a threat to the public health and safety,” the 3 August proposal reads.

Wolf writes that if the new rules pass, they would strengthen oversight by making radioactive material holders more accountable. Under the existing system, an application for permission to use certain types of radioactive material does not cause regulators to ask the most basic questions, such as why the business need the radioactive item or if workers have adequate training and experience to use it.

The proposal comes after the NRC’s leadership panel decided on 30 June not to expand a new database, the National Source Tracking System, to include common x-ray machines and many industrial sensors. Started at the end of 2008, the tracking system focuses only on locating radioactive material it considers a national security threat. The agency’s leadership panel could revisit the issue in the future, according to NRC spokesman Eliot Brenner.