COUNTRY STATUS REPORT Regional Workshop on Management and Safe Disposal of Radioactive Waste Tunis, March 2014 BY MR. RICHARD MATENGU SHAMUKUNI

Overview  In Botswana sealed sources are used in mines, construction, hospitals, etc hence spent/disused sources likely to be generated  Radiation Legislation exists: Radiation Protection Act (2006), & Radiation Protection Regulations,2008  They stipulate regulatory requirements and Security of radioactive sources, also  Radioactive waste management  Regulatory Body exists, since 2008

OBJECTIVES OF THE RADIATION LAWS  To provide administration and control for the peaceful use of Nuclear Technology in the country  To ensure compliance with internationally accepted radiation safety standards e.g. International Atomic Energy Agency standards  To promote and enforce radiation safety practices for licensed users Medical facilities, mining industry, agriculture etc,  To deter criminal intentions of using ionising radiation to make improvised; Nuclear explosions, or radiation scatter devices,

APPLICATIONS OF NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY  Medical facilities diagnosis and cancer treatment e.g. Ir-192,  Construction & Civil Industry soil and moisture density gauges in road or dam constructions e.g. Cs-137 & Am-241/Be,  Research and teaching institutions  Agriculture Soil moisture density gauges, e.g. Am-241/Be  Mining Sector mineral exploration and processing e.g. Cs-137  Manufacturing Industry Food processing, e.g. filling-up of beverage containers at factories; e.g. Am-241

ACTIVITIES OF REGULATORY BODY  Keep national register of all radiation sources Using RAIS & Manual filing  Authorization Of permits to import and export sealed sources; Issuance of LICENCE to own and operate radiation sources;  Inspection of end user facilities Statutory inspections on medical facilities, mines, scrap metal yards, etc  Information management Radiation awareness activities: e.g. publishing of adverts targeting users of sources in newspapers,  Training strategy Attend available IAEA regional training courses, Implement Departmental training annual plans

Status of National Sealed Source Inventory  The inventory of all radioactive sources is maintained by the Radiation Protection Inspectorate through, Web based RAIS  The inventory for each facility is verified during routine inspections,  The end-users are also required by law to keep records (in-house) of their source inventory for verification by Inspectors.

Current National Inventory of Sealed Sources (Registered) CategoryTotal Number of sources (Ir-192) Total542

Status of Current National Sealed Source Inventory Cont…….  Currently there are no registered sealed sources under category 1,  The only source registered under category 2 is an Ir-192 source used for Brachytherapy at an Oncology clinic (Private Hospital).  Spent Ir-192 sources are sent back to the supplier every three months when the new one is delivered (exchange).  There are at least 79 spent & disused sources stored at end-users, e.g.  Co-60;  Sr-90 (eye applicators);  Cs-137/Am-241 (Troxler density gauges);

Management Facilities for Disused Sources in the country  The Government is in the process of constructing a centralized storage & conditioning facility for spent/ disused radioactive sources in 2014/15,  In the interim, a temporary storage Steel Cargo container, funded by the United States Department of Energy Global Threat Reduction Initiative (USDoE-GTRI) is operational as of October 2012,  The aim is to use the Steel Container facility as a “Regulatory Storage Facility”, to store temporarily Impounded/ abandoned radioactive devise by frontline officers e.g. police, customs etc, while investigations are on-going,

Management Facilities for spent Sources continues…..  When such investigations are complete, the confiscated sources will be handed over to their owners or even sent back to the supplier after assessing all the regulatory requirements,  In the past, end-users were asked to keep the impounded radiation sources at their facilities, and such actions defeated the intended intentions of regulating the proper usage of sealed sources,

Fig. 1: Temporary Steel Cargo Container Facility in the country

Future Management Strategies for Spent Sources  The kind of radioactive waste found in Botswana is generated (albeit moderately) in a broad range of activities involving the use of radioactive material in medicine, civil/construction industry, agriculture, research and education;  The amounts of waste generated from these activities are often limited in volume and activity (category 3-5); however, they have to be managed properly as radioactive waste;

Future Management Strategies for Spent Sources cont…..  The regulatory requirement when purchasing new sealed sources is that the end user shall make contractual arrangements for the return of the spent sealed sources to the manufacturer or supplier when no longer needed,  This is so, because there is no disposal facility for sealed sources in the country,  Nonetheless, Government is making efforts to construct a National Centralised Storage & conditioning facility for spent sources, but due to community resistance the process to acquire land for the facility, took almost 5yrs.  Now designing of facility is on-going and  The IAEA did approve expert mission in November 2013 to review the draft designs in Botswana.  Construction is anticipated to start in Sept. 2014

a) Management of Waste at Medical Facilities  waste generated from medical facilities is mainly from diagnostic and therapeutic radionuclides, e.g. Technetium-99m and Iridium-192;  Because the radionuclides used have short half- lives of less than 100 days, the main approach to the management of the radioactive waste is "confine and contain"; whereby the waste is collected and stored before disposal, until the activity has decayed to allowable limits,

b) Management of Waste at Civil and Mining Industries  Civil and mining industries have an array of spent sealed sources which fall into the category of low and intermediate level wastes i.e. category 3/4/5,  The regulatory requirement when purchasing new sealed sources is that the end-user shall make a contractual agreement for the return of the spent sealed sources to the manufacturer or supplier, when no longer needed,  However, with the old or orphan sealed sources, that cannot be traced back to their suppliers, institutions are advised to temporarily store such sources safely at their facilities (but ensure that sources are safe and secure)

E.g. Sources Poorly stored at a local mine…… (picture courtesy of Radiation Inspectorate)

Sources were removed and stored in a Steel Cargo Container within the mine property (Pic. Courtesy of Radiation Inspectorate)

Challenges and Gaps experienced a) Challenges : lack of capacity or expertise in the management of spent sealed sources, lack of a national centralised radioactive waste storage & conditioning facility for the management of spent sources in the country, A major challenge is that of educating the public on radiation protection and associated benefits of nuclear technology,

b) Gaps in enforcement systems: lack of a national radioactive waste management Plan and Strategy  However, a draft departmental Plan and Strategy on how end users should manage their spent sealed sources has been developed, Limited or no radiation screening mechanisms in place at major ports of entry and major airports to control illicit trafficking or trans-boundary movement of sealed sources. However, efforts have been made to install an x-ray scanner at one major border, other borders & airports are to be considered in future, Lack of radiation monitoring mechanisms in place at Scrap metal yards to monitor incoming & outgoing scrap metals; Challenges and Gaps experienced Cont.

FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS  Continue to train relevant law enforcement and emergency response personnel on security of radioactive sources and radiation safety principles,  Provision of extra radiation detection equipment at all major borders and airports: to reinforce borders and airports,  Strengthen import/export control of radiation sources through effective regulatory processes,  Construct a National Centralised Radioactive Waste Storage and Management Facility; Provision for IAEA technical assistance development of facility Operation Procedures, (Radiation Protection Programme, Waste Acceptance Criteria, conditioning procedures etc,  Continue to enforce the buy-back policy for all new sealed sources,

E.g. Civil industry radioactive waste burnt road construction gauge

Thank you! RADIATION PROTECTION INSPECTORATE Private Bag B01, Gaborone. BOTSWANA Tel: (+267) , Fax: (+267)