Practices and Regulation for Effectiveness on Nuclear Security Control of Radioactive Sources at Medical Facilities in Malaysia

Today, Malaysia had thousands of radioactive source that are used throughout medicine, industry, agriculture, academia, and government facilities for a variety of purposes, and recent studies suggest that these materials may be vulnerable to theft or sabotage. Many of which are poorly secured and vulnerable to theft by terrorists seeking to detonate a dirty bomb. The number of radioactive source in medical facilities had increase from time to time due the demanding for diagnostic and treatment services to the patient. Ministry of Health (MOH) of Malaysia as part of authority agency that controlling the use of radiation activities in medical purposes supposed to strengthen the nuclear security to achieve effective control on nuclear security, physical protection, storage and transport and of the associated facilities at all stages in their cycle. The purpose of this document is to describe best practices available to manage the security of radioactive sources in medical centers, and hospitals. This document also outlines approaches for comparison what level of Malaysia to follow the IAEA recommendations - to share the experiences, including difficulties encountered, lessons learned, good practices adopted and outline the way forward in the implementation of the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) recommendation based on the National Safety Series (NSS). This paper also highlights the key challenges in regulating in nuclear security control and provides an update on opportunities to implement the related recommendations of IAEA to the medical facilities. Proposed country requirement in relevant process work to obtain authorization for replacing the Cs 137 Blood Irradiator to x-ray technologies (non isotropic). (author)