Collage

Safe Handling of Radioactive Materials

1. Dry Runs

  1. Practice what you are going to do.
  2. Waste containers nearby.
  3. Remember time, distance.
  4. Make a good flow setup.
  5. Always work on absorbent paper (plastic side down), and on a leak-proof tray when large volumes of liquid are used.

2. Clothing (the following items are required, not optional)

  1. Lab coat - button it!
  2. NO open-toed shoes. Leather (non-permeable fabric) shoes are best.
  3. GLOVES — Change them often.
    1. Turn them inside out to remove them.
    2. Change them VERY often when working with Tritium.
    3. NEVER WEAR THEM OUTSIDE OF THE LAB — If you must walk to another room, put whatever you are carrying into another container so you don’t need to wear gloves. (This also guards against accidental spills, collisions, etc.).
  4. Safety Glasses - wear them.

3. Badges

  1. Wear clip badges at waistline.
  2. Wear finger badge on hand closest to radioactive materials.
  3. Keep dry and away from extreme heat.
  4. Leave badges on the badge rack when not in use.
  5. Wear only your own badge - never wear anyone else's.

4. Survey Meters

  1. Check to see if it is appropriate for the isotope you are working with (look at Efficiency for isotope).
  2. Know what Scale you are reading.
  3. Leave the speaker (audio) on – that way you won’t leave it on overnight and run down the batteries.
  4. Remember their limitations: they will never detect H-3 and only about 2% of C-14 or S-35.

5. Survey Your Area

  1. Survey slowly; meters are not real quick to respond.
  2. NOTE all surveys in the yellow Radioisotope Log Book in you lab.
  3. YOU MUST DO SURVEYS EVERY WEEK when you are working with radioactive materials.
  4. It is a good habit to survey every time you leave your bench for extended periods of time (i.e., lunch, overnight, etc.)

6. Wipe Tests

  1. If you are working with a radionuclide, which is difficult or impossible to detect with a Geiger Counter (S-35, C-14, H-3), you need to survey your area using wipes.
  2. Use a small piece of 3mm Whatman paper, or equivalent, moisten with Ethanol/Water, then wipe areas that might possibly have contamination.
  3. Place in a scintillation vial, add cocktail then count sample in a Liquid Scintillation Counter. Use ours, if you’d like.

7. Inventories

  1. Orange inventory sheets accompany every vial of radioactive material received.
  2. Make sure that you enter the amount taken from this “stock vial” every time you remove something from it.
  3. Keep an accurate running total of the radioactive material remaining.
  4. THIS INVENTORY MUST BE KEPT CURRENT AT ALL TIMES.
  5. It is not mandatory, but you may choose to enter the waste streams that the material went into on the left hand side of the Inventory sheet.

8. Accidents

  1. Stop, assess situation.
  2. Take care of any injuries.
  3. Isolate area, do not spread contamination.
  4. Assign someone to go for help, if possible.
  5. Come to MH-557, or call X2687 immediately. If you call Ext. 2507, you reach my phone line directly and I can be paged from there.
  6. After hours,call X911. Tell them what has happened and ask them to call me.

FINAL GOOD IDEA: WASH YOUR HANDS EACH AND EVERY TIME YOU LEAVE THE LAB. Leave ALL of your experiments IN the lab.

Revised: 8/2001