Management of Spent Sealed Radioactive Sources in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Rep., Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia)

This study has been performed to consider the situation relating to the regulation and management of spent sealed radioactive sources (SSRS) in five central and Eastern European (C and EE) countries currently being considered for admission to the EU: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. The general aim of this study has been to acquire a thorough understanding of the management of SSRS in these five countries, in order to recommend improvements in management schemes and to establish whether the application of common disposal criteria would be advantageous. This report is structured in the following manner; following the Introduction (Section 1), there is description of current and proposed regulatory requirements in the EU, together with a summarised comparison of the regulatory systems in C and EE countries with EU standards in Section 2. Sections 3 to 7 are dedicated to the situation in each of the five countries. Each of these sections is similarly sub-divided to enable country-by-country and topic-by-topic comparison. In each of Sections 3 to 7 there is an overview, description of the sealed source inventory, regulations, current management practices, retrieval of unregistered SSRS, conclusions and a description of possible future technical assistance projects. Section 8 brings together a summary of the situation in each country, with conclusions and both country-specific and generic recommendations. A common concern in the five countries and also in existing EU member states is the problem of accidental inclusion of SSRS in consignments of scrap-metal. The detection of radioactive material at entrances to scrap metal facilities and at national borders has therefore received considerable attention in recent years. Practical issues regarding the detection of SSRS in scrap metal are described in Appendix A. None of the five countries considered in this report have any plans to develop regional disposal facilities and no specific common disposal criteria have been developed. All the countries are, however, proceeding with their waste management plans, taking account (to varying degrees) of 'high level' International Standards and practices relating to acceptable dose uptakes, environmental impact, etc. Such a situation is similar to that relating to the EU member states, who also comply with EC Directives, IAEA Safety Series documents, etc., but have not developed specific prescriptive disposal criteria for universal application across all Member States. The management and regulation of SSRS in the five countries is, in general, performed well and in a similar manner to a number of current EU member states. Many of the proposed improvements for waste management are included in the recommendations in Sections 8.3 and 8.4. Implementation of these recommendations will serve to further improve the situation and provide a long-term safe environment for the management of SSRS. (author)