Effective Regulatory Control of Radioactive Sources in Taiwan

Effective Regulatory Control of Radioactive Sources in Taiwan Wen-Shi Liu 1, Chi-Chiang Yuan 2, Shung-Hwei Fan 3,Shian-Jang Su 4 1,2,3 Radiation Protection Department, Atomic Energy Council, No. 80,Sec. 1, Cheng-Kung Road, Yung-Ho City, Taipei Hsien, Taiwan, ROC. E-mail: 1 wsliu@aec.gov.tw, 2 ccy@aec.gov.tw, 3 shfan@aec.gov.tw, 4 sjsu@aec.gov.tw Abstract. Since the incident of radioactively contaminated buildings first surfaced in Taiwan in 1992, efforts have been made by AEC (Atomic Energy Council) of Taiwan to prevent recurrence of similar incidents involving radioactive materials and to achieve effective regulatory control over radioactive sources. The most important milestone is when AEC began to enforce IRPAthe Ionizing Radiation Protection Actwith the promulgation of 18 relevant regulations on Feb. 1, 2003. In order to enhance accountability of radioactive material and equipment capable of producing ionizing radiation, AEC develops and begins implementing a RPCS Radiation Protection Control System, which is a powerful tool in controlling radiation safety and security. In addition, AEC develops a monthly registration program via internet, an on-line reporting system for owners/operators of radioactive sources, to improve monitoring of sealed sources (in-use and not-in-use). The registration requirement applies to 469 licensees possessing about 3,000 sealed sources in Taiwan. Because of the threat of orphan sources, AEC has made great efforts in preventing their contamination of construction steel material by establishing and enforcing the RPMMPIRCB Regulation for Preventive Measures and Management Plans for Incident of Radioactively Contaminated Buildings. To comply with this regulation, all 19 of Taiwan s steel factories with melting furnace have installed portal-type radiation detection system to monitor incoming scrap metal. 1. Introduction Around the middle of 1992, the first incident of radioactive materials contaminated building surfaced in Taiwan. It immediately drew large attention in public and was reported extensively in mass media. Later other radioactively contaminated buildings were found. All these buildings were constructed in the period between 1982 and 1984. It prompted the AEC to start conducting survey of radiation levels in housing buildings constructed between 1982 and 1984 in Taiwan and to hold meetings with scholars and relevant governmental organizations in discussing ways of handling this problem. As of now, there are 1620 housing units having been found to be contaminated by radioactive materials. In 1994 the RPMMPIRCB was promulgated by the Executive Yuan of Taiwan government. It provides the legal basis for regulating iron and steel construction materials and compensation for victims of the incidents. 1.1. The Regulation - RPMMPIRCB Acco rding to RPMMPIRCB, imported iron and steel construction materials must be randomly checked of radiation levels by the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). If abnormal surface radiation levels (greater than 0.5µSv/hr) are found, the materials must be sent back to their exporting countries. As to domestic steel makers, they shall perform a

radiation survey on the raw materials and steel products. If the conclusion of the survey is normal, the producer shall provide a free of radioactive contamination certificate to the buyer. Upon finding abnormal radiation levels in their raw materials and steel products, the steel makers shall immediately report to the AEC for further investigations. And raw materials and steel products with abnormal radiation levels will be sent to designated locations for handling if the radiation is from artificial radioactive nuclides or naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM). Also, the construction authorities of specific municipality and county (city) shall request the constructor and construction inspector to issue a free of radioactive contamination certificate for the re-bars or steel frames that are to be used in the building under construction. Under such a system, the AEC requires the steel makers to have radiation detection capability. To reach that goal, steel makers are required to purchase radiation detectors, train their employees to obtain radiation detection techniques and get radiation detection personnel s qualification, have their radiation detectors calibrated periodically, check the radiation levels of business wastes routinely, and issue free of radioactive contamination certificates to their buyers. Also AEC recommend steel makers to install portal type radiation detectors. So far, 175 domestic steel makers in Taiwan have been qualified by the AEC to have radiation detection capability. 19 steel makers that own smelting furnaces have installed high sensitivity portal type radiation detectors at the request of the AEC. All the scrap iron or scrap steel and steel products will be detected. If abnormal surface radiation levels (greater than 0.5µSv/hr) are found, they will report to the AEC immediately. 1.2. Contamination Cases found People in Taiwan get used to living in a steel-structured housing environment. But, Taiwan does not have large amount of domestic iron ore reserve. Most of the iron and steel construction materials are manufactured domestically. In recent years the materials for making steel, i.e., scrap steel, are from local markets (67% approximately) and imports (33% approximately). Since Taiwan established such a detection system in 1995, there have been 175 cases (86 cases occurred in local products and 89 cases occurred in imported products) of abnormal radiation levels of construction materials being found so far. They include NORM contaminated piping equipment, artificial radioactive nuclides contaminated iron and steel, and artificial radioactive sources. The exporting countries include Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Russia, and United States of America. TableΙ. shows statistics of the cases found of abnormal radiation levels in construction materials in Taiwan.

TableΙ. Cases found of abnormal radiation levels in construction materials in Taiwan, 1995~2004 (1.) By Country Country Number of Cases Percentage Australia 4 2.29 Hong Kong 7 4.00 Japan 8 4.57 Malaysia 1 0.57 the Netherlands 21 12.00 Poland 1 0.57 Russia 10 5.71 South Africa 5 2.86 Taiwan 86 49.14 Thailand 2 1.14 UK 2 1.14 Ukraine 4 2.29 USA 15 8.57 Unknown 9 5.14 Total 175 100 (2.) By Radioactive Element Radioactive Element Number of Cases Percentage Radium 71 40.57 Uranium/Plutonium 42 24 Cobalt 40 22.86 Cesium 13 7.43 Krypton 3 1.71 Others 6 3.43 * Some cases involve more than one radioactive element. 2. Radiation Protection Control System The old regulatory operation of Taiwan s ionizing radiation protection follows the Atomic Energy Act published in 1968 and other relevant regulations. In order to meet with the current socio-economic environment, technologic advancing trends, and ruled-by-law spirit and concept, Taiwan in January 2002 established and promulgated IRPA, and subsequently established its 18 daughter regulations. In February 2003 these regulations were formally put into effect, making Taiwan s ionizing radiation protection system stride into a new epoch. As the old computer-controlled regulation information system can not fully meet with the demands of these new Act and regulations, starting from May 2002 AEC (Atomic Energy Council) in cooperation with the INER (Institute of Nuclear Energy Research) plunged human power and other resources into re-development of RPCS. In February 2003 this system started functioning putting radiation personnel s qualification, operator s capability, and radioactive material and equipment s import, export and transfer operations into management by computers. RPCS system structure is planned and designed in accordance with the users needs and the specific network environment: focusing on the intranet system used by our employees who are undertaking the review tasks, and using client-server structure, objects-oriented programming method in system

development. As to the external internet web-page filing users, this system adopts multi-tiers structure, which complies with the J2EE applications server which has industrial standard elements models (such as COM, CORBA, JavaBean and EJB), stores repeatedly usable elements and programs, and installs the elements and programs on the client side to comply with the functioning of enterprise logic. This system is depicted as in Fig.1. RPCS includesmanagement of radioactive material operating workers and radiation protection personnel s qualification, capability and trainings; licensing of radioactive material and equipment capable of producing ionizing radiation; web-page filing operation of operators holding sealed radioactive materials; licensing of radiation protection organizational establishment and radiation protection services; management of iron and steel construction materials radiation detection personnel and training institutionsand the establishment of administrative penalty database. RPCS provides the functions of file establishment, printing and alteration control, and the establishment of alteration historic logs and abnormality alerting. There are 16 sub-systems being completed so far. Each sub-system contains 1 to 7 or so operational items. 2.1 Regulatory Control Operations 2.1.1 Radiation Safety Regulatory Control Operation Radiation safety regulatory control includes control over radioactive material and equipment capable of producing ionizing radiation and their operational workers. The personal data of these operational workers are registered into the database. From license application to renewal, to replacement, to revocation, to change of work unit, this information is included under computers control. The training institutions of these workers must send the amount of reeducation hours to AEC to register and RPCS will prompt out alert to those disqualified on data alternation. As to radioactive material and equipment capable of producing ionizing radiation, from license application, renewal and replacement, to cease-in-use, to termination, and seal-up or to return-to-use of them, these operations all are included under computers control and they are crosschecked with the stored data on import, export, and transfer of radioactive material and equipment capable of producing ionizing radiation, relevant operational workers and radiation protection personnel s qualification of the operator which applies for holding these material and equipment such that not only total quantity control can be made but also personnel s doing part-time job can be precluded.

Database AEC Intranet RPCS Public Servant AP Server VPN Fire Wall erator Internet Filing System Internet RPCS Public Servant Fig.1. System Configuration In addition, in order to strengthen sealed radioactive material s safety, this system has designed web-page declaration operation through Internet, asking operators periodically file the holding and usage status of radioactive material through Internet web-pages. With the help of real time Internet submitted data AEC can fully manage and control the whereabouts and alternations of these radioactive sources within the least amount of operational time. Besides providing license print-out and statistical data for analysis, for the purpose of fore-alerting, this system has functions designed to foretell and prompt out alerts to overdue or about-to-be-overdue licenses, disqualified operational workers, disqualified radiation protection personnel, unclosed cases, unconformable export, import and transfer license information, unconformable in or out of customs information, and overdue or about-to-be-overdue Internet web-page filing sealed radioactive material so as to remind the regulator of taking precautions. 2.1.2. Radiation Protection Personnel Licensing Control Operation Radiation protection personnel licensing management is the major task of Taiwan s radiation safety protection operation. From personnel s passing the exams to issuing, to renewing, to replacing, to revoking, to terminating, and to returning to use of the license, these processes are all incorporated within computers control. The training institutions of these personnel must send the amount of

reeducation hours to AEC to register and this system will prompt out alert to those disqualified on data alternations. This operation provides automatic crosschecks on radiation safety operation license application: including radiation protection organizations and radiation protection service industry which the personnel might be working in. Those disqualified can not apply for relevant services so as to effectively control radiation protection operational safety. In addition to providing license print-out and statistic data for analysis, for the purpose of fore-alerting, this system has functions designed to foretell and prompt out alerts to overdue or about-to-be-overdue licenses, and personnel s doing part-time job status to remind the regulator of taking precautions. 2.1.3. Radiation Protection Organizations and Radiation Protection Service Industry Control Operation According to IRPA, radiation protection establishment s operator should/can establish radiation protection management organization and/or place radiation protection personnel according to its business size and characteristics in undertaking his radiation operation. The operator should first draw up radiation protection plan and then submit to AEC for approval before undergoing his radiation operation. Without the permission, the operator can not undergo its radiation operations. RPCS has the design of application, alternation and termination of license operations in controlling operator s size and its personnel s qualification and number. In addition to the functions of printing out and doing statistics on the licenses, this system provides the function to foretell and prompt out alerts about operator s radiation protection relevant personnel s disqualification, company size s disqualification and its personnel s part time working status in reminding the regulator of taking precautions. This system also provides the function of management in license application, renewal, re-issuance, revocation, and termination of radiation protection detection operators, sales service industry and radiation protection training institutions. It also lists in the approved service items and radiation protection personnel s information, providing automatic crosschecking of relevant operations. In addition to printing out and doing statistical analysis of the license holding status in the computer s database, this system provides the function of foretelling and prompting out alerts about licenses overdue or ready-to-be-overdue, operational worker s non-qualification, radiation protection personnel s non-qualification, and unsettled cases in reminding the regulator of taking precautions. 2.1.4. Iron and Steel Construction Materials Radiation Detection Personnel and Training Institutions Management RPCS inputs iron and steel construction materials radiation detection personnel training institutions basic information and qualified radiation detection personnel s information. It can inquire of Radiation Detection Personnel s and their training institution s information, and print out relevant statistic data files.

2.1.5. Administrative Penalty Database For the transparency, openness and consistency in penalizing the violators; for preventing the same violation from receiving different penalty; and providing reference for the future, RPCS establishes administrational penalty database. This database bears detailed, cited regulatory articles, and basic information about the violators, penal category, handling process and description. 2.2 Framework of RPCS The framework of RPCS is shown in TableП below. Subsystem Radiation Application Safety Certificate Application TableП. The Framework of Radiation Protection Control System Radiation Protection Accreditation Certificate Management Declaration of Operational Worker Training Management of Radiation Protection Personnel Training Radiation Protection Organizations Application Radiation Protection Service Industry Application Import, Export and Transfer Application Equipment License Application Radioactive Material License Application Review and Management of Radioactive Material Regular Exam Equipment Regular Declaration Radioactive Material Regular Declaration Review and Management of Equipment Regular Declaration Management of Examinee Passing Operational Worker Management Radiation Detection of Administrative Personnel Penalty Operational Item Database maintenance V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V Submitted V V V V List License V V V V V Statistics and V V V V V V V V V V V V V V Inquiry Alarmed Inquiry Present Record Historical Record V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V Management of Iron and Steel Construction Materials 2.3. System Operational Process In principle, all subsystem s operational process can be described as in Figure2. Applicants (or operators), after preparation of relevant documents for the application items, submit their application to AEC. Upon receiving the application, AEC, judging the nature of it, distributes it to the Applicant Receive Public Servant Review Register Submit List License Return Figure2. System operational process Inquiry

related public servants to review. If there are any insufficient, incomplete or erroneous information in the application documents, the public servant will inform the applicant and ask him to submit corrected information or return the application to the applicants. After the approval of application, the public servant then inputs the relevant information into this system. For those application operations requiring batch submission, this system prints out submission list and in combination with the applications the public servant submits the package to his superiors for approval. After approval, the servant prints out the applied certificate and together with this certificate is an approval letter to the applicant. Once the application has been approved, the application information cannot be modified. Alternations in each subsystem s application operation include: new application, exchange of old certificate with new certificate, and renewal of certificate after expiration; renewal, replacement, cease-in-use, revocation, termination, and seal-up of radioactive material and equipment. As for the functions of breakdown inquiry, statistical data inquiry, alerts inquiry, historic data inquiry and table print-out, the public servant can fetch the necessary information basing on his practical operational needs. All the alternation operations have been recorded in the historic log files, detailing the list of the alternation date and the information of the public servant who alters the information and providing tracking for the future. 2.4. Benefits Main benefits of establishment of RPCS are: 1. Real time and effective control over Taiwan s radiation protection operational affairs; precise management of personnel, materials, equipments and facilities. 2. Uplift of the regulatory control operational effectiveness and manipulation of man power. 3. Uplift of the Internet operations and future scalability of e-administration in full swing. 4. Provision of various statistic analyses of radiation protection licenses, facilitation of the establishment and implementation of radiation protection measures. 5. Integration of various radiation protection licensing information and the establishment of regulatory control system to boost control over Taiwan s radiation protection operational affairs. 3. Conclusion Taiwan has marched into a new radiation protection regulatory control era by using online web-page filing system for radioactive sources owners and operators. This, together with the established RPCS which controls relevant radiation protection personnel and their organization in applying for licenses for radiation detection or utilizing radioactive material or irradiation equipment whether they being medical, non-medical or for research and the information of relevant radiation protection service industry, provides AEC with a very efficient and effective means for management of radiation safety and security on Taiwan s radioactive sources. In the future AEC will continue its effort in the direction of using computer related technology in controlling radiation protection relevant affairs.