Ethics Guidelines

Part B - Guidelines for Projects Involving Ionising Radiation

Section 13 - Emergency Procedures

It is the responsibility of the user in conjunction with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD's) Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) and Chief Investigator to prepare a set of emergency procedures to use in the event of a radiation emergency. This should be reviewed with the Site RSO upon arrival in Antarctica.

13.1 In preparing the emergency procedures, careful consideration is to be given to possible accident scenarios in relation to transport, storage and use of the radioisotope. Once potential accidents have been identified, the working rules should incorporate protocols to minimise the possibility of occurrence of those accidents. The accident identification process will serve in preparation of both working rules and emergency procedures.

13.2 If a potential accident ceases to be credible due to the alteration of protocols in the working procedures or due to some other action (such as improvement of storage or laboratory conditions) then that accident need no longer be considered as a potential scenario.

13.3 The accident consideration process should identify specific scenarios and list them in the working rules (see Section 12.5.18). The process should also address non-specific scenarios that are considered as credible occurrences, although a specific cause is not identified. A specific example might be fire caused by having the store adjacent to a workshop in which welding operations were carried out near oily cotton waste. Removal of the store to a location remote from the workshop might eliminate that specific possibility, but the general possibility of the radioisotope being involved in a fire of non-specific cause might still need to be addressed in the emergency procedures.

13.4 The actual content of the emergency procedures will vary with the activity, type, containment and form of the radionuclide and the type of accident. However, points that may be common to many procedures are:

general quick assessment of hazard(s);
rendering any immediate urgent first aid required;
notification of appropriate persons (e.g. Radiation Safety Officer);
marking off and securing the affected areas;
shut-down of forced ventilation;
methods of personal decontamination;
methods for immediate containment of spills;
methods of decontamination after immediate containment of spills;
radiation survey of immediate area in the case of a strong gamma emitter;
application of shielding or evacuation of nearby personnel in the case of appreciable gamma fields;
evacuation of persons likely to be affected if radioactive gas or vapour is present;
after the incident is under control, estimation of doses which may have been received or quantities of radionuclides which may have been ingested or inhaled;
later, institution of any medical monitoring indicated by estimation of doses received or activities ingested or inhaled.

Note that the above list is a sample list and not meant to be exhaustive or in priority order, although if serious injury occurred that would of course be given priority over dealing with the radiation aspects of the accident.

(ASP & C)
May 2002

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