See
http://radlab.nl/radsafe/archives/9812/msg00010.html,
a mail from a Health Physicist at Princeton who
wanted to return some smoke detectors to the manufacturer.
As some of you speculated, the foils are indeed special form,
and the manufacturer has just sent me a copy of the special form
certificate. Therefore, I'll be able to ship the detectors without
difficulty as an "excepted package for radioactive instruments and
articles."
This is from the NRC regulations. It isn't
referring specifically to smoke detectors, which
I found odd, but it is indeed about Am-241 used
for calibrating radiation detectors....
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part031/part031-0008.html
(a) A general license is issued to those persons
listed in this section to own, receive, acquire, possess, use, and
transfer, in accordance with the provisions of
paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section,
americium-241 or radium-226 in the form of calibration or reference sources:
(1) Any person in a non-Agreement State who
holds a specific license issued under this
chapter which authorizes receipt, possession,
use, and transfer of byproduct material, source
material, or special nuclear material; and
(2) Any Government agency, as defined in § 30.4
of this chapter, which holds a specific license
issued under this chapter which authorizes it to
receive, possess, use, and transfer byproduct
material, source material, or special nuclear material.
(b) The general license in paragraph (a) of this
section applies only to calibration or reference
sources which have been manufactured or
initially transferred in accordance with the
specifications contained in a specific license
issued under § 32.57 of this chapter or in
accordance with the specifications contained in
a specific license issued to the manufacturer by
an Agreement State which authorizes manufacture
of the sources for distribution to persons generally
licensed by the Agreement State, or in
accordance with a specific license issued by a
State with comparable provisions to § 32.57.
(c) The general license in paragraph (a) of this
section is subject to the provisions of
§§30.14(d), 30.34 (a) to (e), and 30.50 to 30.63
of this chapter, and to the provisions of parts
19, 20, and 21, of this chapter. In addition,
persons who own, receive, acquire, possess, use,
and transfer one or more calibration or
reference sources under this general license:
(1) Shall not possess at any one time, at any
one location of storage or use, more than 0.185 megabecquerel (5
microcuries) of americium-241 or 0.185
megabecquerel (5 microcuries) of radium-226 in such sources;
(2) Shall not receive, possess, use, or transfer
a source unless the source, or the storage container, bears a label
which includes the following statement or a
substantially similar statement which contains
the information called for in the following
statement:<http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part031/part031-0008.html#N_1_318>1
The receipt, possession, use, and transfer of
this source, Model XX, Serial No. XX, are
subject to a general license and the regulations
of the United States Nuclear Regulatory
Commission or of a State with which the
Commission has entered into an agreement for the
exercise of regulatory authority. Do not remove this label.
CAUTIONRADIOACTIVE MATERIALTHIS SOURCE
CONTAINS AMERICIUM241 [or RADIUM226, as
appropriate]. DO NOT TOUCH RADIOACTIVE PORTION OF THIS SOURCE.
__________________________________
(Name of manufacturer or initial transferor)
(3) Shall not transfer, abandon, or dispose of a
source except by transfer to a person authorized by a license issued
under this chapter or by an Agreement State to receive the source.
(4) Shall store a source, except when the source
is being used, in a closed container adequately designed and
constructed to contain americium-241 or
radium-226 which might otherwise escape during storage.
(5) Shall not use a source for any purpose other
than the calibration of radiation detectors or
the standardization of other sources.
(d) This general license does not authorize the
manufacture or import of calibration or
reference sources containing americium-241 or radium-226.
(e) This general license does not authorize the
export of calibration or reference sources
containing americium-241 or radium-226.
Here is a Hazardous Waste Management assessment of Am-241 smoke detectors:
http://www.mcmua.com/hazardouswaste/FAQ_Smoke_Detectors.htm
Some quotes:
Each smoke detector contains about 1 microcurie
(about 1/ 5000 of a gram) of Americium shielded
inside of your detector. The ingredient is
shielded by a metal chamber within the plastic
casing of the detector. On your wall, this
material poses little threat; however, when a
detector is broken open in an incinerator or a
landfill, it can present a health hazard. For
this reason, all detectors, by law, must be
labeled as to radioactive content. Detector
companies must accept returned radioactive
detectors for disposal as hazardous waste.
The only possible health risk is if the
Americium 241 is inhaled. So, make sure not to
disturb, poke or play with the ingredient in your ionization detector.
Do not crush smoke detector.
Although it is legal to dispose of your
ionization detector in the trash, we encourage
you to return the product back to the
manufacturer. They are mandated by the Nuclear
Regulatory law 10 CFR 32.27 to see that the
radioactive waste is disposed at a nuclear waste
disposal facility. When sending back a smoke
detector, you should NOT take it apart. The
entire smoke detector needs to be returned to
the manufacturer or store by UPS ground mail
(not airmail). The batteries, however, should be
removed and properly disposed of or recycled. No
special shipping is needed for your smoke
detector: just put it in a box, maybe with some
newspaper for padding, and send it.
If unable to return smoke detector to
manufacturer, remove battery from smoke detector
and deliver battery to household hazardous waste
disposal event or facility; dispose of smoke
detector in the garbage if no other options exist.
This was Morris County, New Jersey.
And
http://radlab.nl/radsafe/archives/0002/msg00768.html
contains a description of me as a teenager,
except I never did anything with radioactive
materials, just some oxidizers and stuff, and
when there was an hysterical report in a local
newspaper recently about some kind having some
thermite, I was able, from experience, to write a
calming report. No, this wasn't going to blow up
anything, though it would be very effective for
such nifty purposes as melting through the top of
a VW bug, down through the car until it hit the
gas tank and the car exploded. Which someone did
in a video on the internet, showing the car
blowing up. The newspaper web site linked to that
video. But a match in the right place could have
caused pretty much the same thing. The kid had
done nothing like this and was eventually found
innocent of any crime. Come to think of it, I
should look him up and see if I can hire him, if
someone else hasn't snapped him up yet!
And then, a YouTube video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J_KqY81EmA, about
taking apart an ionizing smoke detector and
measuring the radiation with a Geiger counter.
Nice. Illegal? Apparently not. It's preferred to
dispose of smoke detectors with hazardous
materials, but apparently not required. Shipping
many of the little bugs separately could possibly violate regulations.
http://www.hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q1638.html claims
the radioactive material is encapsulated in such
a fashion that even if the device were opened up
and the source removed and swallowed, the
radioactive material could not be absorbed by the body.
As it happens, I have a junk smoke detector from
my apartment, I just remembered it and checked.
0.9 microcuries Am-241. I liked that Gamma Scout
Geiger Counter, I should get one. Meanwhile, I
notice that United Nuclear offers a whole range
of "accurate" isotopes, and claims that they can
be handled and used without a license. But why
spend $79 to get an alpha source from them when a
cheap smoke detector can be purchased new for $6?
Maybe for a calibrated source, these are fresh,
the alpha source is Po-210, guaranteed +/- 20%.
