Problems With Packaged Sources in Foreign Countries

The Global Threat Reduction Initiative’s (GTRI) Off-Site Source Recovery Project (OSRP), which is administered by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), removes excess, unwanted, abandoned, or orphan radioactive sealed sources that pose a potential threat to national security, public health, and safety. In total, GTRI/OSRP has been able to recover more than 25,000 excess and unwanted sealed sources from over 825 sites. In addition to transuranic sources, the GTRI/OSRP mission now includes recovery of beta/gamma emitting sources, which are of concern to both the U.S. government and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This paper provides a synopsis of cooperative efforts in foreign countries to remove excess and unwanted sealed sources by discussing three topical areas: 1) The Regional Partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency; 2) Challenges in repatriating sealed sources; and 3) Options for repatriating sealed sources.