* Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Radioactive operations on board research
vessels must be controlled. This will generate benefits on the
operation of other toxic substances. The need for control is justified
because of public health implications, dealt with by Radiation
Protection measures and, second, because scientific work can be
affected by sample contamination.
In Spain strict legislation exists for
radioactive installations, though no specific normative has been
designed for ship operations. However, legislation implicitly
recognises that any laboratory handling radioactive sources is
a radioactive installation. In this sense, we understand that
radiochemical laboratories in research vessels are of the 3rd
Category, in which maximum activities are, for example, 130 mCi
for 3H and 13 mCi for 14C. The maximum activity
for 14C poses an important problem as it is claimed
by users to be too low for long cruises and for multi-laboratory
use. However, it should be taken into account that the activity
used per sample is possibly too high for new instrumentation and
that, therefore, method development should be carried out.
In the case of B.I.O. Hespérides
(Spain), the radioactive installation is run as an independent
installation of the 3rd category. The procedure used nowadays
includes information to the user, application to use the laboratory,
full source identification, brief operations description, radioactive
waste treatment, and analysis of possible accidents and countermeasures.
A laboratory manual is provided. The Radiation Officer provides
technical assistance, revise applications to use the laboratory
and controls the radiological condition of the laboratory after
use. In the future, full licensing should be obtained and vessel
staff should include a permanent Radiation Officer. In order to
reduce risk, research on the reduction of activities used should
be encouraged.
Some questions are, finally, put forward: how is this issue managed in other countries, which are the maximum activities allowed on board and how are other toxic substances managed in comparison with radioactive materials.