The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversees cleanup work at some military sites under Superfund, more formally known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. The military is also cleaning up other unlicensed radiological material. Congress gave the NRC jurisdiction over radium and radium contamination in legislation passed in 2005. Because exposure to radium can increase the risk of adverse health effects, the military has a program to control or remediate legacy radium contamination and store and decontaminate equipment containing radium. Luminescent radium paint was widely used in vehicle instrumentation and other military applications until the 1960s. The MOU culminates several years of discussions between the NRC and the military. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Defense (DOD) finalized a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on April 28, 2016, describing roles in the cleanup of radium and other unlicensed radioactive materials at military sites. The NRC also determined that contamination resulting from the use of these materials would fall under NRC authority. The NARM rule defines the materials under NRC authority to include those that have been processed, or concentrated, for use in commercial, medical or research activities. These regulations, known as the NARM rule, became effective November 30, 2007.
The NRC's first step in implementing that new authority was to put in place regulations. The EPAct gave the NRC authority over radium and some other materials in a category known as naturally-occurring and accelerator produced radioactive material, or NARM. By 2005, when radium's hazards were understood as both a health concern and national security issue, a consensus supporting federal regulation finally emerged.īefore the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), the NRC did not have authority over naturally- occurring radioactive material such as radium. Before this time, the federal government had a limited role, if any, in ensuring the safe use of radium.
#RADIUM COLORADO CODE#
To limit the potential for "malicious acts," the code appealed to each country to develop a national system of regulation for a list of radioactive sources – radium among them.Ĭongress included a provision in the 2005 Energy Policy Act giving NRC oversight of radium. delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the NRC worked with member nations on a code of conduct for radioactive sources. Experts worried that untracked or stolen radioactive sources, including radium, could be used in "dirty bombs." Between 19, as part of the U.S. While radium use had fallen, in the 1990s terrorism prompted new security concerns about radioactive sources of all types. If we do detect radium, we will provide more detailed information about our findings. The NRC's regulations are designed to keep radium exposure very low-far below the level where we might expect to see health effects. It is important to keep in mind that the presence of radium by itself does not mean there would be health effects-even if it is above the NRC radiation limit. The NRC and its Agreement State partners regulate these sources to ensure they are used in a way that protects public health and safety. However, radium is still being used today in certain applications, such as industrial radiography. Most uses of radium have been replaced by other radioactive materials or radiation generating devices. Radium needles and other forms were implanted into cancerous tumors to arrest the cancerous growth. Radium was fashioned into various sizes and types of sealed sources, many of which were called "needles" because of their shape. It was used in sealed and unsealed sources for cancer therapy. Radium was used in numerous medical applications during the 20 th century as well. Manufacturers used radium until the early 1970s in self-luminous paints for watches, aircraft switches, clocks, and instrument dials. When they were found to have adverse health effects, such products soon became unpopular, and authorities in many countries prohibited them. At the beginning of the 20 th century, radium was a popular additive in consumer products such as toothpaste, hair creams, and even food items because of its supposed beneficial health properties. The half-life of radium is approximately 1,600 years.įollowing its discovery over 100 years ago, radium has been used in numerous industrial and consumer applications. The time required for the intensity to decrease by one-half is referred to as the half-life. The intensity of radiation from radioactive materials decreases over time. Radium is produced by the radioactive decay of uranium. Radium is a radioactive substance found in nature.
0 kommentar(er)
