News Archive

Latha Vasudevan, Section President

Zoom meeting with General Accountability Office (GAO)
23 February 2023, 3 pm Eastern

The GAO has an ongoing engagement looking at how the federal government encourages disposition of radioactive sources, including ¹³⁷Cs, ²⁴¹Am, ⁶⁰Co, ¹⁹²Ir, and ⁷⁵Se. They have spoken to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA), agreement state officials, and licensees to get their thoughts on the challenges they face in disposing of radioactive sources and would like to hear the views of as many radiation safety officers (RSOs) as they can. The main topics they hope to cover:

• What types of radioactive sources present the greatest disposition challenges to RSOs and why?
• What interaction do RSOs have with agreement state officials, NRC, and DOE/NNSA around disposition of disused radioactive sources?
• What costs are associated with the disposition of radioactive sources (or the decision not to dispose of the sources)?
• What are RSOs doing when they cannot dispose of a disused radioactive source?
• What risks are associated with not disposing of disused radioactive sources?

The Zoom meeting link will be sent out to all section members separately. Please join in and provide feedback.