A Survey of radioactive waste disposal arrangements in UK hospitals and medical research institutions

The disposal of radioactive waste into the environment is of public interest. The individual discharges of radionuclides from medical institutions are relatively small but the number of such discharges are quite large and the levels of radioactivity discharged to the environment may be readily measured. The aim of this survey is to demonstrate the variation in the radioactive waste that different medical institutions are authorised to dispose of by various routes. Other relevant factors such as availability of on site incineration, monitoring of ash, etc. are also discussed. This work was accomplished by distributing a questionnaire throughout the United Kingdom to medical physicists who advise and supervise the disposal of radioactive waste in most of the National Health Service hospitals and medical academic institutions. Hence a wide distribution was achieved from a small hospital to a large teaching establishment in a large city. A wide variation was found to exist in the arrangements connected with the disposal of radioactive waste. This variation was found in the activity limits, storage times, ash monitoring frequency and in other organisational aspects of radioactive waste disposal.