Release of radioisotopes and activated materials from nuclear installations and facilities

This report discusses the problems of release of items from facilities and installations where radiation-based activities have been carried out. Several situations are reviewed and their release problems are discussed in detail. Particular attention is devoted to the assessment of the activity of the items to be released. A correct assessment of the activity will help the decision about the final use of the items removed from the radiation-related facility, either re-use, entering the public market, recycling, disposal and storage under different procedures. Even the final destination of the building which hosted the facility needs to be decided on the basis of an accurate assessment of the residual activity. The assessment of the activity, besides being fundamental in guaranteeing a safe approach to the procedures related to the release may result in a substantial profit. This is the case of items whose level of activity is so low that they can be put on the public market, reused or recycled for final product subject to very stringent radiation safety requirements. It will be shown that detector techniques play a fundamental role in the release process. In particular, the low-level counting techniques are fundamental in establishing whether or not the unrestrained release is feasible or not