RADIOLOGICAL SOURCE RECOVERY AND DISPOSITION IN AFRICA

摘要

Since 2005,officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative(GTRI)have been working in close cooperation with representatives from the Nuclear Energy Corporation,South Africa(NECSA)and the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA)to recover and disposition vulnerable high risk orphaned and disused radioactive sources in Africa.As part of this ongoing cooperative effort,candidate radioactive sources are being identified through both IAEA and bilateral visits to African countries,and plans are being developed to recover and disposition them.This is part of a regional partnership among GTRI, the IAEA and NECSA to reduce the risk that these radioactive materials could be used in a terrorist device.Recently,under this same cooperative arrangement,NECSA completed production of a mobile Spent High Activity Radioactive Source(SHARS)conditioning facility. The SHARS facility,a transportable shielded hot cell,will now be used by the IAEA teams for specific recovery efforts in Africa.The purpose of this paper will be to provide background on these cooperative recovery efforts and to address the importance of SHARS to these recoveries.