Safety and security of radiation processing facilities and disposal of radiation sources in India

The number of gamma and electron radiation processing facilities (RPFs) are increasing due to their multifarious applications in the field of medicine, industry, agriculture and research. In India, at present eighteen gamma radiation-processing facilities are in operation, two are under pre-commissioning stage and four are under construction. Five radiation processing accelerator are in operation for cable cross-linking applications. Due to high strength sources, of the order of PBq, and high power beam, of the order of kW, used in RPFs, exposure to any person accidentally present in the radiation processing cell could be fatal. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure a high standard of safety, physical security and reliability in the operation and maintenance of such facilities through careful design, quality control, safe operation and maintenance procedures, emergency response plans, including safe disposal of radiation sources (i.e. decommissioning). In India, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) is the national regulatory authority that provides, among other things, the framework for enforcing safety regulations on facilities handling ionizing radiation sources/devices. In view of several years of national operational experience on RPFs, AERB undertook probabilistic safety assessment studies to estimate the risk of fatality/serious radiation injuries by considering different scenarios in RPFs which may lead to harmful effects of the potential exposures