Receiving a Radioactive Package (10 CFR 20.1906)
Receiving a radioactive package: the monitoring deadline and the limits.
Open the tool → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Emitter type
- Beta or gamma emitter, or a low toxicity alpha emitter (240 dpm/cm²)
- Wipe: net counts per minute
- 2000 cpm
- Wipe: counter efficiency
- 10 %
- Wipe: area wiped
- 300 cm²
Result: Removable contamination 667 dpm/cm², above the 240 dpm/cm² limit.
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What you enter
- Date and time received (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM)
- Received during normal working hours
- Start of the next working day, if received after hours (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM)
- Bears a White I, Yellow II or Yellow III label
- Evidence of degradation (crushed, wet or damaged)
- Holds only a gas or special form material
- Contents exceed a Type A quantity
- Emitter type (for the wipe limit)
The other 6 fields
- Wipe: net counts per minute
- Wipe: counter efficiency
- Wipe: area wiped
- Wipe efficiency, if measured (the rule allows 10% to be assumed)
- Dose rate at the package surface
- Dose rate at 1 meter
How this is calculated
Citation
10 CFR 20.1906(b), (c) and (d): which packages are monitored, within 3 hours, and when to notify the carrier and the NRC. 49 CFR 173.443 Table 9 (through 10 CFR 71.87(i)): 240 and 24 dpm/cm2. 10 CFR 71.47(a): 200 mrem/h and a transport index of 10. Read the sources: 10 CFR 20.1906 ↗, 49 CFR 173.443 ↗, 10 CFR 71.47 ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.