Status of the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources in Portugal

In Portugal, radioactive sources are used in the medical sector, in a multitude of industrial applications and for research and education purposes. The vast majority of the existing radioactive waste falls in the categories of low or intermediate level waste. The Council Directive 2003/122/Euratom of 22 December 2003 on the control of high-activity sealed radioactive sources and orphan sources was transposed to the Portuguese legislative framework by Decree-Law No. 38/2007, which assigned the former Nuclear and Technological Institute (ITN, Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear), which was integrated into the Higher Technical Institute (Instituto Superior Técnico) in 2012, the responsibility for the licencing and control of radioactive sources in the country. Other decree-laws also assigned to the former ITN specific responsibilities in the collection, segregation, conditioning and storage of radioactive waste. Article 4 of the Decree-Law No. 38/2007 deals with the authorization of the ownership, transport and transfer of radioactive sources and equipment incorporating radioactive sources and stipulates that in order to get the authorization the applicant must provide a cautionary fee amounting to 10% (or to 5%, if the source is incorporated in an equipment) of the cost of the radioactive source. In the paper, it is shortly described the impact of this measure in the proper use and management of disused and spent sealed radioactive sources in the country. (author)