Speaker
Description
Disused sealed radioactive sources are used in many fields such as industry, medicine, civil engineering, agriculture, research and educational applications. However they must be controlled from manufacturing to disposition, which requires a big deal of awareness, commitment and mobilization of all the necessary resources in order to be managed safely and securely in line with the IAEA standards and recommendations.
Morocco as one of the member states committed to the joint convention utilizes every mean possible to act in accordance with these standards in each step throughout the lifecycle of the source: characterization, transport, dismantling, conditioning and storage.
At the international level, Morocco never ceases to help and assist regional and interregional member states in the management of disused sealed radioactive sources through training courses under the technical cooperation projects organized by the IAEA in both languages English and French, almost every year since 2015.These events are hands-on trainings which allow the attendees from different nationalities and different backgrounds to work together and contribute to the capacity building of member states.
Thanks to AFRA Training Courses, I had the chance to participate in two demonstration operations on conditioning and storage of neutron and low activity sources hosted by Senegal in 2018 and Uganda 2019. These events gathered operators and regulators from African member states; our mission was to prepare the adequate working plan to dismantle both gamma emitting sources and neutron sources, then putting them in special form capsules that were sealed definitely at the end of the operation, these capsules were emplaced in their proper drum after being engraved in order to mention the containing element, the activity inside the capsule and also the serial number which is written already on an original from provided by the manufacturer.
Even if these countries didn’t build facilities for the management of radioactive waste, they used a cheap, affordable and very useful method to manage their disused sources. Two ISO containers were designed to serve as treatment and storage areas while respecting safety and security measures. This concept can help many other countries with limited budget to deal with their own inventory.
Working in harmony together, made us believe that maybe in the future there will be a possibility to build a qualified African team specialized in dismantling, conditioning and storage of DSRS. This team will have the opportunity to travel through Africa in order to ensure that radioactive sources are managed in a safe and secure manner under the supervision of experts from the IAEA.
At last, maintaining a high level of safety and security of radioactive sources from cradle to grave requires promoting cooperation and exchange of experiences and aspirations between member states.
| Country OR Intl. Organization | Morocco |
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