An orphan source is a self-contained radioactive source that is no longer under proper regulatory control.
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines an orphan source more exactly as:
...a sealed source of radioactive material contained in a small volume--but not radioactively contaminated soils and bulk metals--in any one or more of the following conditions
- In an uncontrolled condition that requires removal to protect public health and safety from a radiological threat
- Controlled or uncontrolled, but for which a responsible party cannot be readily identified
- Controlled, but the material's continued security cannot be assured. If held by a licensee, the licensee has few or no options for, or is incapable of providing for, the safe disposition of the material
- In the possession of a person, not licensed to possess the material, who did not seek to possess the material
- In the possession of a State radiological protection program for the sole purpose of mitigating a radiological threat because the orphan source is in one of the conditions described in one of the first four bullets and for which the State does not have a means to provide for the material's appropriate disposition
Read more about Orphan Source: Orphan Source Incidents
Famous quotes containing the words orphan and/or source:
“A man should not go where he cannot carry his whole sphere or society with him,Mnot bodily, the whole circle of his friends, but atmospherically. He should preserve in a new company the same attitude of mind and reality of relation, which his daily associates draw him to, else he is shorn of his best beams, and will be an orphan in the merriest club.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Knowledge is the most democratic source of power.”
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