Have there been any accidents involving irradiation facilities?
Medical sterilization facilities have been operated in this country for more than 30 years, without a fatal accident. Over 100 such facilities are currently licensed, along with at least that many medical radiation treatment centers, and bone marrow transplant centers (which also use Cobalt 60 to irradiate patients). No events have been documented in this country that led to exposure of the population at large to radioactivity. In other countries, a small number of fatal incidents have been documented in which a worker by-passed multiple safety steps to enter the chamber while the source was exposed, resulting in a severe or even lethal radiation injury to themselves. What radioactive waste is generated? Is waste storage or transport a problem? Cobalt 60 is manufactured in a commercial nuclear reactor, by exposing non-radioactive cobalt to intense radiation in the reactor core. Cesium 137 is a by-product of the manufacture of weapons-grade radioactive substances. Thus the supply of the
Medical sterilization facilities have been operated in this country for more than 30 years, without a fatal accident. Over 100 such facilities are currently licensed, along with at least that many medical radiation treatment centers, and bone marrow transplant centers (which also use Cobalt 60 to irradiate patients). No events have been documented in this country that led to exposure of the population at large to radioactivity. In other countries, a small number of fatal incidents have been documented in which a worker by-passed multiple safety steps to enter the chamber while the source was exposed, resulting in a severe or even lethal radiation injury to themselves.
