Discovered radioactive source in a railway wagon, loaded with scrap metal

Site with SIR or place of the event: Railway station Dimitrovgrad, Republic of Serbia

Event description:

On 1^st March 2009 the Emergency Centre of the NRA was notified by the Bulgarian Border Police that the Serbian customs office at railway station Dimitrovgrad have turned back a Bulgarian railway car loaded with scrap metal. The owner of the scrap metal is the Company “Rovotel steel” Ltd. The information has been verified and confirmed also by the General Directorate National Service Civil Protection (CP). The railway car has been turned back on Bulgarian territory at railway station Dragoman (at the Bulgarian-Serbian border) and has been stationed on a separate track and was under surveillance.

The performed measurements by the CP at the same day indicate that only within small area of the railway car the dose rate was about 1.77 µSv/h (10 times higher than the natural background). The radioactive isotope Ra-226 has been identified following a spectrometric analysis. Likelihood the radiation is caused by the device containing radium painting for luminescence purposes for night vision.

According to the standard procedure the railway car was transported to the scrap yard of the company owner of the metal scrap for further unloading and removal of the radioactively contaminated metal scrap. After that the source will be disposed as radioactive waste by the State Enterprise “Radioactive Waste”.

There is no risk for the population and environment.