Frequently Asked Questions - NUCLEONIX SYSTEMS RC 705E Instruction Manual

Radioactive Contamination (RaC) issue is a new phenomenon for the recycled steel and foundry industry including
automotive and engineering component industry. These RaC issues are important to all exporters to Europe, USA,
UK & Japan. Low level contamination cases have been found to be more in the recent past. Nucleonix systems with
vast design experience in the field of nuclear instrumentation have developed a package of products for the detection
and measurement of RaC for this industry. Based on the questions encountered from the industry, we thought it
may be appropriate to put these queries in the form of FAQ's and make an article so that majority of the industry
personnel are benefitted.
1Q) What is Radioactive Contamination in Steel / Iron / Alloy / Casting Products?
A) Scrap metal, engine block scrap and other miscellaneous scrap (incoming) when purchased, may get mixed
up with any of the Radionuclide substances (Sources), such as co-60, Am-241, Cs-137 etc.(medical& industrial
sources) can enter the factory accidentally leading to Radioactive contamination, when processed further in a
steel industry. Also semi-finished inputs such as flats, bars, rounds, castings, other parts, received from vendors
as inputs to automotive or Engineering component industry may have radioactive contamination already.
2Q) How it can happen?
A) There are lot of industrial & medical radioisotope products used in cancer hospitals & industries. When they
are disposed, illegally,(not following AERB guidelines) it is likely that they come into steel plants & large
foundries through input scrap metal or through semi-processed inputs purchased from other industrial unit,
& can lead to radioactive contamination of the end product.
3Q) What is the remedy & how to detect & segregate contaminated parts?
A) There are sensitive low level radioactive contamination inspection systems, Truck/container monitoring
systems (large) andsmaller Portable instruments offeredby companies' world over. In India, Nucleonix Systems
a reputed company with its vast design, development & manufacturing experience into Nuclear
Instrumentation has developed a package of products to meet requirements of steel industry in different
situations to detect radioactive contamination.
4Q) Which are these products?
A) The following are the products, offered by Nucleonix Systems
1. Rad check meter (With Internal detector) RC 705I
2. Rad check meter (With external detector probe) RC 705E
3. Radioactive Contamination Analyzer (Bq / gm system) RA 1006
4. Package monitoring system PMS 1009
5. Truck / Container Monitoring System For Radioactive Contamination TR 1021
5Q) Apart from products being offered by Nucleonix Systems to measure RaC, whether Nucleonix also offers RaC
measurement & analysis services? If yes what kind?
A) Yes. Nucleonix offers (a) Radioactive Contamination Analyzer inspection services for all exporters at site &
issues certification and (b) we accept samples (Approx 1Kg) by courier for RaC analysis to give certification
in Bq/gm which is required in some cases. (Few customers are availing our services.)
6Q) What is Rad Check Meter, in what situations we can use this product?
A) It isa sensitive, economy model which checks for radioactive contamination (Photons / Gamma Radiation) in
steel/Alloys/ Iron samples / scrap metal, Automotive and Engineering components, when the meter front
face is kept close to sample (almost touching). It is a hand held instrument suitable for scanning manually.
There are more than Five Hundred meters supplied by us throughout the country, which are widely in use.
Recently we exported these meters to few countries.
CHAPTER - IX
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Page 23 of 49