Assessment of the main deviations found during regulatory inspections in industrial gamma radiography in Argentina

The present paper shows the regulatory work made through inspections concerning radiation safety and security in the area of industrial gamma radiography. An account is shown of the items which should be available in the storage facility where the equipment and radioactive sources are placed as well as in site radiography and which are required to the users of the equipment meant for this practice, in order to ensure compliance with the regulations in force. The objective of this paper is to assess the most frequent deviations to the regulatory standards found during this type of inspections, such as lack of complete and operable radiation protection equipment, lack of available elements bound to act in case of emergency, no delimitation of controlled areas, gamma radiography equipment stored in unlocked position, wear gauge unavailable, record of movements of equipment and radioactive sources not updated, anomalous monthly or annual personal dose values, among the main findings. In particular, in connection with dose reports, some cases of occupational exposed workers exceeding the annual dose limits or investigation levels are highlighted. In addition, the explanations provided by the person responsible for radiation protection of companies in regard to the possible causes or circumstances which might have given rise to such dose values, the conclusions reached and the preventive and corrective measures implemented by these companies are analysed. Finally, an assessment of the annual dose distributions of the occupational exposed workers concerned with this kind of practice in the period 2004-2007 is shown. As a conclusion, the relevance of these deviations according to degradation in safety and security performance and the role of the regulatory work as a promoter of the implementation of safety culture will be emphasized. (author)