Scottish Regional Group meeting, 23rd February 2010 - Radon & Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials
Some six years since the last Scottish Regional Group meeting, the group has reformed under the coordination of Bob Kerr. A committee of six has been set up and our first meeting was held at Scotland's Secret Bunker at Troywood near St Andrews. Although this unconventional venue could not offer all the latest conference facilities, it was marked highly on the feedback forms and proved to be a big draw, with almost 70 delegates effectively filling the function area about 20 metres underground. Guided tours were held on the previous afternoon and around 25 delegates were shown where and how top Government executives and staff would have been governing in the event of nuclear war breaking out.There were nine presentations at the meeting and we were pleased to have representation from regulators, Scottish Government, radiation protection organisations and decommissioning and remediation experts. Gareth Thomas from HSE outlined the legal requirements for workplaces and employers to assess risks in NORM-impacted industries and in locations where Radon gas levels could be elevated. He also described the probable future legislation in this area as a result of the updating of the EC and IAEA Basic Safety Standards. Byron Tilly of SEPA described their environmental regulation of NORM under RSA93 and the use of Exemption Orders, when justified, to deal with it.
Two talks focussed on the oil & gas industry: Brian Heaton of Aberdeen Radiation Protection Services explained how and where NORM forms in top plant, the main hazards arising and identified some issues of IRR99 compliance and monitoring and disposal. Steve Boler of Nuvia talked about their experiences in the decommissioning of the Brent Spar oil storage buoy and stressed the importance of 'cradle-to-grave' planning of NORM waste retrieval and disposal. The Health Protection Agency have been producing Radon maps since 1990 and Daryl Dixon showed the 2009 Scottish 5km radon map in which 370 out of 19100 tested homes were above the Action level. A follow-on Scottish Homes radon programme is commencing.
On the subject of Radon measurements across a large industrial site, Julian Ginniver of DSRL provided the results of a survey of radon across 49 buildings at Dounreay while Pete Burgess of Nuvia explained the problems that radon progeny can generate when trying to measure very low concentrations of other airborne alpha-emitters. Nigel Reeves of AMEC described the characterisation and remediation of a site which produced tin plate and as a result had Thorium legacy contamination. Their use of the prevailing PSRE Exemption Order for some wastes led neatly into the final talk by Stuart Hudson of the Scottish Government. Stuart gave an update on the situation in Scotland with review of Exemption Orders and of RSA93, explaining the reasons for review, the process of review and showed what will be seen as a very useful logic diagram for determining what is and is not radioactive material or waste.
This was a very successful first meeting for the new Scottish Group and we are already arranging the next planning meeting for future events and will be reaching out to SRP membership particularly in Scotland to hear of their ideas and needs.
Joe Toole, Scottish Regional Group member
Presentations:
- Introduction
- Gareth Thomas
- Byron Tilly
- Brian Heaton
- Steve Boler
- Daryl Dixon
- Julian Ginniver
- Pete Burgess
- Stuart Hudson
- Chris Perks Presentation
- General Presentation
- IRPA 13 Break Slide
- Nigel Reeves
Gallery of Photos
