Hi all,



Just to follow up Johns email below, particularly radon monitoring. 



We recently had our radiation service re-evaluate our stores and they suggested ordering a radon monitor. We looked around and you can order one from the government for about £21 (less if you're a public body). For this they send you a monitor, which you install in the stores and then after 3 months you send it back and they will evaluate it for you and send you the results. The website is below if you'd like more information.



http://www.ukradon.org/ 



Nick



-----Original Message-----

From: The Geological Curator's Group mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Faithfull

Sent: 21 December 2015 09:02

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Re: storage of natural radioactive minerals



Hi Jens,



Various curators and others have worked on this. Monica Price, at Oxford University, Jana Horak at National Museum of Wales, and myself published a short summary review here in 2013:



http://www.natsca.org/sites/default/files/publications/JoNSC%20Vol1-3.pdf



Basically national radioactive regulations vary, but in the UK natural materials are exempt from specific nuclear materials regulations (including disposal), unless in enormous quantities. However, we are still obliged to protect workers, and public from radiation exposure. There are no specified mechanisms for doing this, so there is room to design an approach that suits your particular needs. 



You need good, calibrated monitoring equipment so that you can ensure that public, and workplace exposure limits are being met, and staff who work closely with radioactive specimens may need to be registered as radiation workers. However, this should be routine for most University radiation protection services. They should also be able to provide personal dose monitors which may be work when working closely with radioactive materials.  My experience, using such monitoring,  is that curatorial specimen work provides negligible excess exposure even when working closely for short periods, but you still need to use monitoring equipment to record this.



Public activities are quite possible, as long you carry out careful risk assessments, and method statements, and follow these to ensure that you are operating safely and legally.



Distance is the best shield, followed by dense materials. Radon may be a problem if you store a lot of material in one space, so you may want to look at vented storage, or opening sealed containers in vented or outdoor spaces. 



 I would regard disposal of material with good locality/occurrence data as being unethical if it is simply on the grounds of radioactivity.  However, very large "hot" specimens might be unsuitable for some facilities, and transfer elsewhere might be appropriate. Disposal as waste should not be considered, unless there is no useful accompanying data.



The big area of uncertainly is with preparing specimens eg sectioning, polishing, or crushing radioactive specimens  for analysis. This is an area where clear good practice guidelines are lacking in the UK. However, this is an area which could usefully be looked at, and the way forward may be to develop  a small number of central facilities which carry out such work. This is not yet resolved.



I attach our "Local Rules" document, plus a couple of UK documents which might be useful. 



Hope this is helpful - let me know if you have any additional queries.



John





Dr JW Faithfull

Curator (Mineralogy/Petrology)



The Hunterian

University of Glasgow

Gilbert Scott Building

Glasgow G12 8QQ



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-----Original Message-----

From: The Geological Curator's Group mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jens Lehmann

Sent: 21 December 2015 07:38

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: storage of natural radioactive minerals



Dear all,

I wonder about the storage of natural radioactive minerals. Are leaden safety jackets present housing critical specimens? Is monitoring by a Geiger counter obligatory or by chance?

Over here at Bremen university we had to dispose a number of specimens from the Black Forest a few years ago. These have been in the collection for decades, but on behalf of the security management of our university we had to dispose our specimens. Since there is a new case of very few minerals that might be critical I wonder how the formalities for the handling of radioactive minerals are in the UK. Is it allowed to store naturally radioactive specimens in a public building? Is any institution separating these specimens in isolated places (caves, separate buildings without public access)?

Many thanks,

Jens



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