Emergency response during the radiological control of scraps in Cuba

In the last few years, in the international scene, incidents have been reported due to the presence of radioactive materials in the scrap. This reality has motivated the adoption of measures of radiological security, due to the implications that these incidents have for the public and the environment, as well as for the international trade. Among these actions is the implementation of the radiological control of scrap, with the additional requirement that this control has to be implemented in the framework of a Quality Management Program. Taking into account the international experience, our institution designed and organized in 2002 a national service for the radiological monitoring of scrap, being the clients the main exporting and trading enterprises of this material in the country. During these years, several contaminated materials have been detected, causing incidents that activated the radiological emergency response system. In this sense, since some years ago, our country has been working in the implementation of a national and ministerial system for facing and mitigating the consequences of accidental radiological situations, conjugating efforts and wills from different national institutions with the leadership of the Center of Radiation Protection and Hygiene (CPHR) and the Center of Nuclear Security (CNSN) in correspondence with the social responsibility assigned to them. These incidents propitiate to have not only a system of capacity and quick response oriented to limit the exposure of people, to control the sources, to mitigate the consequences of the accident and to reestablish the conditions of normality, but also a previous adequate planning that guarantees the speed and effectiveness of it. In these work the experiences reached by the specialists of the CPHR from Cuba during the occurrence of an incident in the execution of the service of radiological monitoring of scraps are exposed. (author)