Proposal for the improvement of the safety culture in the practice of industrial scintigraphy

In the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the oil and gas industry is one of the most important economic activities, being in these where the largest number of non-destructive tests with gamma sources are carried out, using the radioisotope Iridium-192. Currently, there are sixty-two (62) authorized companies that provide industrial gammagraphy services, totaling three hundred and eighty-eight (388) gammagraphy cameras, which represents a significant number of radioactive sources that are mobilized throughout the country. . In this sense, the National Regulatory Authority, through authorizations and inspections, carries out an exhaustive control in order to guarantee compliance with safety standards in this type of practice; However, a lack of safety culture has been detected, both at the level of the managers of the user entities and the Occupationally Exposed Workers (O.T.), causing incidents and radiological accidents. In this regard, this work presents some proposals in order to raise the security levels, through the following actions: a) Individual licensing system of the T.O.E; b) Adequacy of the programs of the courses in radiological protection dictated by the authorized companies; c) Training and retraining of the operators responsible for carrying out the practice and the officials of the Regulatory Authority.