Radiation Safety Committee
100 Oak Creek Building, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-7404
541-737-2227
Minutes
Radiation Safety Committee
Meeting of December 17, 2013
Oak Creek Building, Room 201, 10:00am-12:00am
Members present:
Members absent:
Scott Menn (Chair), Rainier Farmer (Secretary), Russell Turner, Maret
Traber, Michael Freitag
Tom Wolpert, Dan Kermoyan, Angel White, Rosita Rodriguez-Proteau
The meeting was called to order at 10:10am by Scott Menn.
Approval of Minutes
Minutes of the September meeting had been distributed to the committee for review prior to the
meeting.
Motion to approve as prepared was made by RT, seconded by RF. The motion passed 3-0,
with MT and MF abstaining.
Action Item updates
• Rainier: send a reminder to x-ray PDs about acquisition pre-approval and maintaining
machine use logs, and send information about X-ray refresher training. Status: still on
hold. Dan Harlan has been working on other EH&S projects, but should be available
soon to complete the training material.
• Rainier: Update the Radiation Safety Manual for the organizational structure changes, and
send an information bulletin to PDs recommending that the RSM be downloaded to a
local drive so that it is available if the network is down. Status: Still pending due to
workload and staffing issues. A second reorganization has occurred since this action
item was added.
• Rainier: benchmark staff training budgets with like institutions. Status: Still pending.
• Rainier: obtain additional information for the human use project, update the safety review
accordingly, and forward the updated application, draft RUA and safety review to the
RSC for electronic voting. Status: The information was received and distributed to the
committee members for review. The RSC voted electronically to approve the human use
project pending state approval.
Motion to approve Radiation Use Authorization 346-E, David Williams, human use study
(IRB 5644) passed 7-0 via electronic vote with RF, DK, MT, RP, MF, TW and SM voting to
approve; approval is contingent on waiver being granted by State Radiation Protection
Services.
Information Sharing
• David Horn was hired for the RPT2 position, to fill the vacancy left by Mike Zittle. His
current focus is on the waste program.
• Rainier met with Glenn Ford, VP of Finance and Administration to review his
responsibilities for the OSU radioactive materials license.
•
A general lab safety inspection program is pending, employing additional functionality
available for the EHSA software program.
Review of Authorizations and Amendments
The Executive Committee report was distributed prior to the meeting for review. Three
new approvals and two amendments were processed since the last meeting. Rainier noted
that the new RUA for Mas Subramanian was for storage only of samples with small
levels of radioactivity induced from neutron diffraction analysis by an outside source.
Motion to approve the Executive Committee actions was made by MT and seconded by RT.
The motion passed unanimously.
Waste Program Audit – Michael Freitag
The audit report was distributed to the committee for review prior to the meeting. MF reviewed
highlights of the report:
• Additional restraints as recommended on the previous audit were added to the waste
facility shelves for earthquake safety.
• The vacant Radiation Protection Technologist position has been filled, and the related
RSOP has been updated for the current position title.
• Reactor Holding Tank releases are included in the detailed annual waste disposal
summary, but are not required to be reported via letter to the City of Corvallis. Waste
disposal was low for the rest of the campus due to the position vacancy.
• MT noted that the annual waste disposal summary did not include the units (volume and
activity) for the Reactor Facility numbers. Rainier will correct the summary.
• MF toured the waste facility and noted that it was “exceptionally well organized.” The
roof leak still needs to be addressed.
Recommendations:
• Obtain the missing final waste burial certificates from US Ecology and from Energy
Solutions.
• A process needs to be determined for the sampling, surveying and disposal of 8-10 HEPA
filters stored in the waste facility. The filters need to be characterized before they can be
sent to PermaFix. MT suggested that this could be a good project and possible thesis
topic for a graduate NE/RHP student.
New Auditor: Scott Menn was appointed to perform the Dosimetry Program audit.
Material Control and Security self-audit – Rainier Farmer
RF performed an audit of the Material Control and Security program on December 11, 2013.
• A previous audit recommendation to record approval numbers on incoming vials has not
been implemented except on a trial basis. Although there are no significant problems
with approval number tracking on semi-annual inventories, it could be helpful for the
tracking of long-lived isotopes and when there are multiple vials under the same order.
Long approval numbers make marking the vials challenging. SM suggested that approval
numbers could be printed on pre-made labels and then applied. Lot number and order
number fields could also be added to the inventory reports to aid in identification. Labels
for existing inventory could be printed and provided to the program directors by
Radiation Safety.
•
No changes to the security procedures have been made. One direct delivery of a rad
package to a lab was traced to a training issue with reception desk personnel at the Oak
Creek Building. The training has been provided. RF noted that he continues his efforts
to train the business centers and procurement personnel on pre-approval requirements for
x-ray machines.
ALARA Report
• No significant individual exposures or trends were found in the quarterly ALARA report
on personnel exposures.
RS Program Vulnerabilities review
RF reviewed program vulnerabilities and associated corrective actions identified by the RSC
from a Vulnerability Assessment project initiated by the Research Office. The committee last
dealt with assessment in January 2012. The project was tabled after March 2012 due to Research
Office staffing, but is being resurrected. The primary concerns are:
• Laser safety program is underdeveloped.
• Procurement of x-ray machines without preapproval from the RS office.
• High cost of disposal for some wastes (e.g. mixed waste and sealed sources). Rainier
noted that this vulnerability has been significantly reduced due to disposal of legacy
sources in May 2012.
• Inadequate space for staff, and inadequate protection and space for RS records.
The committee concurred that these items still represent the significant vulnerabilities related to
radiation safety.
New business
Rainier distributed a memorandum and email from Sabah Randhawa, received on Dec. 11.
Sabah requested feedback on his proposal for an OSU Institutional Compliance Office to provide
more formalized regulatory compliance. Committee feedback will be summarized by Scott
Menn and forwarded to Sabah.
Action Items
• Rainier: Send a reminder to x-ray program directors about acquisition pre-approval and
maintaining machine use logs, and send information about x-ray refresher training.
• Rainier: Update the Radiation Safety Manual for the organizational structure changes, and
send an information bulletin to PDs recommending that the RSM be downloaded to a
local drive so that it is available if the network is down.
• Rainier: Benchmark staff training budgets with like institutions.
• Rainier: Contact peers at other institutions with a Compliance Office model.
• Scott: Work with RSC to provide feedback to Sabah by 12/31/2013. Provide information
on the current high level of oversight for radiation safety.
Adjournment: 11:50am
Next meeting: to be determined.
Rainier Farmer
cn=Rainier Farmer,
o=Oregon State University,
ou=Environmental Health
and Safety,
email=rainier.farmer@oreg
onstate.edu, c=US
2014.03.21 14:46:59 -07'00'
Rainier Farmer
Secretary
Distribution:
Committee members
R. Spinrad, Vice President for Research
D. Blake, Asst. VP Human Resources, Facilities, Risk Management, Public Safety/OSP
P. Hughes, Chief Risk Officer
G. Ford, Vice President for Finance and Administration