Isotope & Europe
Posted: 16 Feb 2018, 05:03
I decided to write this post for people who live in europe and want to order man-made isotope sources (like disk from spectrum techniques). When i wanted to order my first isotopes i thought it would be fairly easy, but luckily i reseached and found some rules that would have cost me alot of trouble if not respected.
So here is sort of a "buying guide".
Basically there are 3 Rules you should consider when ordering isotope sources from anywhere to your country:
Rules 1 - Local Regulations about owning isotopes and radioactive items
This rules define what quantity someone can legally own without a special license. These values differ from country to country and can be very different. For examle here in Switzerland i can own 19uCi of Cs-137, in Germany its only 0.27uCi.
Rule 2 - ADR Transportation
ADR is a Regulation for the Transport of dangerous goods on roadways and is applied by most europe countries. Here it starts to be complicated. Most postal carriers will not transport radioactive or dangerous goods, even when it would be legal. Its mostly because of paperwork and not knowing the contents. So in the bad case, your radioactive box will get stuck at the customs center, and you have to pick it up by yourself or arrange a special transporter to get it to you - this can lead to a very very high cost.
For radioactive Items there is a table of ADR where radioactive is radioactive. For example 0.1uCi Cs-137 is not considered radioactive in ADR, but 0.3uCi would be.
These values can be found at https://adrbook.com/en/2017/ADR/2.2.7.2.2
For Cs-137 the limit is 1x10^4Bq = 0.27uCi
For Co-60 the limit is 1x10^5Bq = 2.7uCi
If you only what to purchase one isotope at a time, just look up the value and check it. But if you want to order more sources in one package you have to calculate the percentage of each isotope in relation to its maximum value
Lets say you want 0.25uCi Cs-137 Disk , the limit is 0.27 therefore 0.25uCi / 0.27uCi = 0.93
for a 1uCi Source of Co-60 it would be 1uCi/2.7uCi = 0.37
If you have these both in one package you have to add the factors: 0.93+0.37 = 1.3 !!
Any value over 1 is not permitted and would end up in a dangerous goods classification (UN2910 in this case)
So you could only order a 0.1uCi Cs137 Source
0.1uCi /0.27 = 0.37 for Cs-137
With 1uCi of Co-60 you would only reach 0.74 which is perfectly fine!
Rule 3 - Disposal
To be honest, this rule is only important if you care...
Most countries permit the ownership of radioactive sources, but you can't simple dispose them. For example in Switzerland and Germany its perfectly legal to own 0.1uCi of Cs-137, but you are only allowed to dispose 0.0027uCi of that isotope. Therefore you would have to wait 157 years before your source can go to trash.
Maybe this post is a help for new people :)
So here is sort of a "buying guide".
Basically there are 3 Rules you should consider when ordering isotope sources from anywhere to your country:
Rules 1 - Local Regulations about owning isotopes and radioactive items
This rules define what quantity someone can legally own without a special license. These values differ from country to country and can be very different. For examle here in Switzerland i can own 19uCi of Cs-137, in Germany its only 0.27uCi.
Rule 2 - ADR Transportation
ADR is a Regulation for the Transport of dangerous goods on roadways and is applied by most europe countries. Here it starts to be complicated. Most postal carriers will not transport radioactive or dangerous goods, even when it would be legal. Its mostly because of paperwork and not knowing the contents. So in the bad case, your radioactive box will get stuck at the customs center, and you have to pick it up by yourself or arrange a special transporter to get it to you - this can lead to a very very high cost.
For radioactive Items there is a table of ADR where radioactive is radioactive. For example 0.1uCi Cs-137 is not considered radioactive in ADR, but 0.3uCi would be.
These values can be found at https://adrbook.com/en/2017/ADR/2.2.7.2.2
For Cs-137 the limit is 1x10^4Bq = 0.27uCi
For Co-60 the limit is 1x10^5Bq = 2.7uCi
If you only what to purchase one isotope at a time, just look up the value and check it. But if you want to order more sources in one package you have to calculate the percentage of each isotope in relation to its maximum value
Lets say you want 0.25uCi Cs-137 Disk , the limit is 0.27 therefore 0.25uCi / 0.27uCi = 0.93
for a 1uCi Source of Co-60 it would be 1uCi/2.7uCi = 0.37
If you have these both in one package you have to add the factors: 0.93+0.37 = 1.3 !!
Any value over 1 is not permitted and would end up in a dangerous goods classification (UN2910 in this case)
So you could only order a 0.1uCi Cs137 Source
0.1uCi /0.27 = 0.37 for Cs-137
With 1uCi of Co-60 you would only reach 0.74 which is perfectly fine!
Rule 3 - Disposal
To be honest, this rule is only important if you care...
Most countries permit the ownership of radioactive sources, but you can't simple dispose them. For example in Switzerland and Germany its perfectly legal to own 0.1uCi of Cs-137, but you are only allowed to dispose 0.0027uCi of that isotope. Therefore you would have to wait 157 years before your source can go to trash.
Maybe this post is a help for new people :)