The Radioactive Substances (Hospitals) Exemption Order 1990

Article 4(1)

SCHEDULE 2 CONDITIONS MENTIONED IN ARTICLE 4(1)

1.  Clear, legible and up-to-date records shall be maintained on the premises and made available for inspection by an inspector and shall show separately in relation to radioactive waste which is disposed of in accordance with paragraph 4, 5 or 6 below—

(a) the dates on which the waste is disposed of; and

(b) the sum total activity of radionuclides in the radioactive waste disposed of in any month.

2.  The chief inspector shall, within 7 days, be notified in writing of the first disposal of radioactive waste to which article 4(1) above applies which occurs on or after 1st January 1991.

3.  Radioactive waste to which article 4(1) above applies shall not be disposed of except in accordance with the following provisions of this Schedule.

4.—(1) Solid radioactive waste may be disposed of by—

(a) a waste collection authority removing it from the hospital premises with a view to its disposal elsewhere; or

(b) a person other than a waste collection authority removing it from those premises with a view to its disposal at the same place as substantial quantities of non-radioactive waste in or on land subject to a site licence.

(2) At the time of its removal from the hospital premises the sum total activity in any 0.1 cubic metre of the waste shall not exceed 400 kilobecquerels and the sum total activity of any individual article in the waste shall not exceed 40 kilobecquerels.

5.—(1) Solid or flammable liquid radioactive waste may be disposed of by—

(a) burning it on the hospital premises in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph; or

(b) a person removing it from those premises with a view to its disposal by burning on the premises of another hospital in accordance with those provisions.

(2) The sum total activity of radionuclides in the waste burnt on the premises shall not exceed in any month—

(a) 25 megabecquerels in the case of carbon 14 and tritium taken together; and

(b) 5 megabecquerels in the case of all other radionuclides.

(3) The waste shall be burnt in an incinerator used for the destruction of clinical waste in such manner as to ensure that any gas or vapour produced will be discharged into the open air at such points and in a way which will prevent, so far as reasonably practicable, the entry of such gas or vapour into any part of any building.

(4) All residual ash so produced shall be disposed of in accordance with paragraph 4 above.

(5) In this paragraph “clinical waste” has the same meaning as in regulation 2(1) of the Collection and Disposal of Waste Regulations 1988(1).

6.—(1) Aqueous liquid radioactive waste shall be disposed of from the hospital premises by discharging it into a drainage system which drains to a public sewer which is normally used for the disposal of foul water or trade effluent.

(2) The sum total activity of radionuclides in human excreta in the aqueous liquid radioactive waste disposed of in any month shall not exceed—

(a) in the case of technetium 99m, 1.0 gigabecquerels; and

(b) in the case of all other radionuclides, 500 megabecquerels.

(3) The sum total activity of radionuclides other than in human excreta in the aqueous liquid radioactive waste disposed of in any month shall not exceed 50 megabecquerels.

(4) In this paragraph—

• “public sewer” has the same meaning as in section 189(1) of the Water Act 1989(2) and, in relation to Scotland, section 59(1) of the Sewerage (Scotland) Act 1968(3); and

• “trade effluent” has the same meaning as in section 14(1) of the Public Health (Drainage of Trade Premises) Act 1937(4) and, in relation to Scotland, section 56(1) of the Control of Pollution Act 1974(5).

(1)

S.I. 1988/819.

(2)

1989 c. 15.

(3)

1968 c. 47.

(4)

1937 c. 40.

(5)

1974 c. 40; section 56 was substituted by section 169 of, and paragraph 6 of Schedule 23 to, the Water Act 1989.