1. Legislation and database for the use of radioactive sources in Switzerland
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Thomas Flury, PhD, Federal Office of Public Health, Switzerland

2. Outline Legislation Authorities Licensing Database
Radioactive Sources Registry
Drawbacks

3. Switzerland Direct democracy 8.3 Million people 4 languages 41’000 km2
Zermatt
Direct democracy
8.3 Million people
4 languages
41’000 km2
11.1 kg chocolate per
Capita per year
Zurich

4. Legal basis: the concept of radiation protection
Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation
People
Art. 119 of April
Within the limits of its powers, the Confederation shall take measures for the protection of health…It shall legislate on protection against ionizing radiation.
Radiological Protection Act
Parliament
Federal Assembly
(Bundesversammlung)
Art. 9 of 22 June 1991
In order to limit the radiation exposure...it shall be required to adopt all measures dictated by experience and the state of the scientific and technological art.
Radiological Protection Ordinance
Art. 6 of 22 June 1994
Federal Council
(Bundesrat)
Radiological protection associated with justified activities shall be deemed to be optimized provided:
the appropriate different possible solutions shall have been individually assessed and compared with each other;

5. Legal basis: relevant legislation for medical applications
Law
Parliament
Federal Council
Ordinance
Department
Technical Ordinances

6. Federal Office of Public Health Federal Office of Energy
Authorities
Industry, public
Nuclear industry
Federal Office of Public Health
Surveillance
FOPH (Public, medicine)
SUVA (Industry)
Federal Office of Energy
Surveillance
ENSI
5 Nuclear Power Plants

7. Licensing Radioactive material (sealed and unsealed)
All activities using ionizing radiation need a license
Radioactive material (sealed and unsealed)
Equipment producing ionizing radiation (U > 5kV)
X-ray (medical, non-medical)
Particle accelerators (research, production, therapy)

8. Nuclide activity for licensing
Defined activities for each nuclide (LA)
iOS App NuklidCalc (en,de,fr), free
Nuclide information
IAEA D-Values
Handy calculations
Decay
Activity vs Doserate
Converter Ci-Bq
Soon also for Android

9. Minimal conditions for a license
Use is justified, optimised and dose limits respected
Trained personnel
Measurement equipment available
Construction: Shielding, ventilation etc.
Quality assurance
Waste management

10. Licensing database
~21’000 licences in Switzerland (power plants excluded)
Database accessible by authorities (FOPH,SUVA)
Based on Oracle
Types of authorized activities (radioactive sources)
Use of sealed sources or unsealed sources
Sources for medical or non-medical use
Isotope production (accelerators, generators)
Storage
Import, export, transport, commerce

11. Screenshot of Database
Authorizations
Specifications
Authorized nuclide
Authorized activity
Source Information
Flag HASS

12. License handling
Export to Microsoft Word
License is signed
Valid 10 years
Changes must be announced
Yearly declarations for HASS, unsealed sources and commerce
Periodic inspections by authority

13. Sealed sources registry
HASS sources
Serial number and certificate known and stored
Sources with activities < D-value
First FOPH gives license, then licensee orders source
Merchant must check that source and activity are authorized before selling
Often no serial numbers or certificates in database
Sources are changed without notification but shouldn’t

14. High activity sealed sources
Import needs a special one time authorization
License holder must declare source once per year
License holder must provide financial guarantees for the eventual elimination of the source

15. License revocation
If a license is no longer needed, the licensee has to make sure to dispose of the disused sources in a correct way
Return to the supplier
Recycling
Temporary decay storage
Delivery for long-term storage
Information about the fate of disused sources is stored in database

16. Drawbacks Orphan sources found in e.g. scrap metal plants
Identification difficult because serial number not necessarily in licensing database
Yearly declarations run through different data base
Future Work
Bookkeeping of source information needs to be improved
New database which combines everything

17. Future New radioprotection ordinances in 2018 Most notable changes
Training in radioprotection every 4 years
Security for radioactive sources
New database ready in 1-2 years

18. Questions
Federal Office of Public Health, Bern, Switzerland