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The primary responsibility for securing nuclear and radiological material is with the licensee.
Operators and handlers should ensure that all material is inventoried and secured appropriately. When equipment or material is being moved or used, individual users and routes should be logged allowing an audit trail of authorised use. In addition to manual inventory assessments, the loss or unauthorised material may trigger an alert or alarm.
Missing material constitutes a potential security incident and the national competent authority should be informed immediately. Licensees should not assume that missing material is accidental or that it will be easy to find as once outside of regulatory control, nuclear and radiological material may end up in unlikely places. There have been many cases where nuclear and radiological material has harmed people and the environment, both accidentally and maliciously. For example, in 1989 a capsule containing caesium-137 was found inside the concrete wall of an apartment building in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. The source was originally lost in the Karansky quarry where gravel was mined for the construction industry. It was later mixed with this gravel and used in the construction of the housing block. Over nine years, two families lived in the apartment and, according to subsequent analysis by Olga Makarovska, by the time the capsule was discovered several residents had been exposed to radiation, with some reportedly dying of leukaemia during that period.
Due to the hazardous nature of nuclear and radiological material, finding and securing any missing material is important – but so is the protection and analysis of evidence where there is malicious intent. Investigations will also help prevent future recurrences of missing material. In-house investigations should be conducted in conjunction with those by the regulatory body, which may be able to authorise involvement of other state organs such as the police to increase manpower any subsequent recovery and evidence preservation efforts.
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