Security of Radioactive Sources in Radiation Facilities

4.4 Security of Radioactive Sources during their Transport
A radioactive source could be in storage at the facility or in use there. It
could also be in transport either from the supplier of the source to the facility,
or from one location to another for operational reasons, or the source is being
sent to a disposal facility. As mentioned earlier, transport of a radioactive
source needs special consideration from the view of safety and security. The
guidance for this purpose are available separately in the AERB safety guide
No. AERB/NRF-TS/SG-10 [7] and these should be used by the licencee
whenever the source is in transport.
4.5 Measures Common to Security Levels A and B
There are several measures, which are common to achieve the performance
objectives of Security Levels A and B. These are outlined in the following
paragraphs:
4.5.1 Availability of Formal Security Plans
Formal security plan should be prepared for facilities possessing Category-1
sources, got duly registered with District Law and Enforcement Authority
and submitted to Competent Authority for review. The specimen format for
registration of security plan is given is Appendix-VI. For facility possessing
sources of category 2 to 5, the security plan should be submitted to competent
authority for review. This plan should describe how the security provisions
in this document are met for the source(s) under consideration. It should be
reviewed at least annually to ensure that it is still current and applicable.
Appendix-VII outlines some of the issues that should be considered in a
security plan. Security systems are effective only if they are fully implemented
and are periodically tested and evaluated. System evaluations should be
performed and documented as part of a quality assurance system. Whenever
any component of the security system has been compromised, steps should
be taken to suitably rectify the system. Towards this, there should mechanisms
to detect any attempt to tamper the security system.
4.5.2 Ensuring Security of Critical Information
Ensuring information security is a critical factor for any security plan.
Particular attention should be paid to this aspect. The ‘need to know’ principle
should be adopted in the dissemination of such information and the distribution
of relevant documents has to be controlled. Information, in this regard, applies
to those pertaining to source locations, specific security measures or
weaknesses in the licencee’s system of management of sources, etc. Typically,
this would include:
(a)
specific locations of sources;
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