Regional Workshop on
Management and Safe Disposal of Radioactive Waste
Tunis, March 2014
COUNTRY STATUS REPORT
BY
MR. RICHARD MATENGU SHAMUKUNI
Overview
 In
Botswana sealed sources are used
in mines, construction, hospitals, etc
hence spent/disused sources likely to be
generated
 Radiation
Legislation exists:
Radiation Protection Act (2006), &
Radiation Protection Regulations,2008
They stipulate regulatory requirements
and Security of radioactive sources, also
Radioactive waste management
 Regulatory
Body exists, since 2008
OBJECTIVES OF THE RADIATION LAWS

To provide administration and control for the
peaceful use of Nuclear Technology in the country

To ensure compliance with internationally accepted
radiation safety standards
e.g. International Atomic Energy Agency standards

To promote and enforce radiation safety practices
for licensed users
Medical facilities, mining industry, agriculture etc,

To deter criminal intentions of using ionising
radiation to make improvised;
Nuclear explosions, or radiation scatter devices,
APPLICATIONS OF NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY
 Medical
facilities
diagnosis and cancer treatment e.g. Ir-192,
 Construction
& Civil Industry
soil and moisture density gauges in road or dam
constructions e.g. Cs-137 & Am-241/Be,
 Research
and teaching institutions
 Agriculture
Soil moisture density gauges, e.g. Am-241/Be
 Mining
Sector
mineral exploration and processing e.g. Cs-137
 Manufacturing
Industry
Food processing, e.g. filling-up of beverage
containers at factories; e.g. Am-241
ACTIVITIES OF REGULATORY BODY
Keep national register of all radiation sources
Using RAIS & Manual filing
 Authorization
Of permits to import and export sealed sources;
Issuance of LICENCE to own and operate radiation
sources;
 Inspection of end user facilities
Statutory inspections on medical facilities, mines,
scrap metal yards, etc
 Information management
Radiation awareness activities: e.g. publishing of
adverts targeting users of sources in newspapers,
 Training strategy
Attend available IAEA regional training courses,
Implement Departmental training annual plans

Status of National Sealed Source
Inventory
 The
inventory of all radioactive sources is
maintained by the Radiation Protection
Inspectorate through,
Web based RAIS
 The
inventory for each facility is verified
during routine inspections,
 The end-users are also required by law to
keep records (in-house) of their source
inventory for verification by Inspectors.
Current National Inventory of Sealed
Sources (Registered)
Category
Total Number of sources
1
0
2
1 (Ir-192)
3
51
4
464
5
26
Total
542
Status of Current National Sealed Source
Inventory Cont…….
 Currently
there are no registered sealed
sources under category 1,
 The only source registered under category 2
is an Ir-192 source used for Brachytherapy at
an Oncology clinic (Private Hospital).
 Spent Ir-192 sources are sent back to the supplier every
three months when the new one is delivered (exchange).
 There
are at least 79 spent & disused
sources stored at end-users, e.g.
 Co-60;
 Sr-90 (eye applicators);
 Cs-137/Am-241 (Troxler density gauges);
Management Facilities for Disused
Sources in the country
 The
Government is in the process of
constructing a centralized storage &
conditioning facility for spent/ disused
radioactive sources in 2014/15,
 In the interim, a temporary storage Steel
Cargo container, funded by the United States
Department of Energy Global Threat
Reduction Initiative (USDoE-GTRI) is
operational as of October 2012,
The aim is to use the Steel Container facility as a
“Regulatory Storage Facility”, to store temporarily
Impounded/ abandoned radioactive devise by frontline
officers e.g. police, customs etc, while investigations are ongoing,
Management Facilities for spent
Sources continues…..
 When
such investigations are complete, the
confiscated sources will be handed over to
their owners or even sent back to the
supplier after assessing all the regulatory
requirements,
 In the past, end-users were asked to keep the
impounded radiation sources at their
facilities, and such actions defeated the
intended intentions of regulating the proper
usage of sealed sources,
Fig. 1: Temporary Steel Cargo Container
Facility in the country
Future Management Strategies for
Spent Sources
 The
kind of radioactive waste found in
Botswana is generated (albeit moderately) in
a broad range of activities involving the use
of radioactive material in medicine,
civil/construction industry, agriculture,
research and education;
 The
amounts of waste generated from
these activities are often limited in
volume and activity (category 3-5);
however, they have to be managed
properly as radioactive waste;
Future Management Strategies for
Spent Sources cont…..
The regulatory requirement when purchasing new
sealed sources is that the end user shall make
contractual arrangements for the return of the
spent sealed sources to the manufacturer or
supplier when no longer needed,
 This is so, because there is no disposal facility for
sealed sources in the country,
 Nonetheless, Government is making efforts to
construct a National Centralised Storage &
conditioning facility for spent sources, but due to
community resistance the process to acquire land
for the facility, took almost 5yrs.
 Now designing of facility is on-going and
 The IAEA did approve expert mission in November
2013 to review the draft designs in Botswana.
 Construction is anticipated to start in Sept. 2014

a) Management of Waste at Medical
Facilities
 waste
generated from medical facilities is
mainly from diagnostic and therapeutic
radionuclides, e.g. Technetium-99m and
Iridium-192;
 Because the radionuclides used have short
half-lives of less than 100 days, the main
approach to the management of the
radioactive waste is "confine and contain";
whereby the waste is collected and stored
before disposal, until the activity has
decayed to allowable limits,
b) Management of Waste at Civil and
Mining Industries
Civil and mining industries have an array of spent
sealed sources which fall into the category of low
and intermediate level wastes i.e. category 3/4/5,
 The regulatory requirement when purchasing new
sealed sources is that the end-user shall make a
contractual agreement for the return of the spent
sealed sources to the manufacturer or supplier,
when no longer needed,
 However, with the old or orphan sealed sources,
that cannot be traced back to their suppliers,
institutions are advised to temporarily store such
sources safely at their facilities (but ensure that
sources are safe and secure)

E.g. Sources Poorly stored at a local mine……
(picture courtesy of Radiation Inspectorate)
Sources were removed and stored in a Steel Cargo
Container within the mine property
(Pic. Courtesy of Radiation Inspectorate)
Challenges and Gaps experienced
a) Challenges:
lack of capacity or expertise in the
management of spent sealed sources,
lack of a national centralised radioactive
waste storage & conditioning facility for
the management of spent sources in the
country,
A major challenge is that of educating the
public on radiation protection and
associated benefits of nuclear technology,
Challenges and Gaps experienced Cont.
b) Gaps in enforcement systems:
lack of a national radioactive waste management
Plan and Strategy
 However, a draft departmental Plan and Strategy on how
end users should manage their spent sealed sources has
been developed,
Limited or no radiation screening mechanisms in
place at major ports of entry and major airports to
control illicit trafficking or trans-boundary
movement of sealed sources.
However, efforts have been made to install an xray scanner at one major border, other borders &
airports are to be considered in future,
Lack of radiation monitoring mechanisms in place
at Scrap metal yards to monitor incoming &
outgoing scrap metals;
FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
Continue to train relevant law enforcement and
emergency response personnel on security of
radioactive sources and radiation safety principles,
 Provision of extra radiation detection equipment at
all major borders and airports:

to reinforce borders and airports,
Strengthen import/export control of radiation
sources through effective regulatory processes,
 Construct a National Centralised Radioactive Waste
Storage and Management Facility;

 Provision for IAEA technical assistance development of
facility Operation Procedures, (Radiation Protection
Programme, Waste Acceptance Criteria, conditioning
procedures etc,

Continue to enforce the buy-back policy for all new
sealed sources,
E.g. Civil industry radioactive waste
burnt road construction gauge
Thank you!
RADIATION PROTECTION INSPECTORATE
Private Bag B01, Gaborone.
BOTSWANA
Tel: (+267) 31 88 388, Fax: (+267) 39 57 025
E-mail: [email protected]