CHAPTER - II
INTRODUCTION TO RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION (RAC) IN STEEL INDUSTRY
Nucleonix Systems has Products, developed for the inspection of radioactive contamination in steel industry to
meet the requirements at different stages of production cycle. These are useful for inspection of inputs such as scrap
metal, semi-finished raw materials & finishedproducts in different forms, such as billets, rods, machined parts, castings,
forgings etc.
Radioactive Contamination (RaC) can be defined as uncontrolled distribution of radioactive material in a given
environment / material. Radioactive contamination in steel / foundry is due to the accidental incorporation of
radioactive material into the scrap metal chain supply system. There are a lot of radioactive sources (industrial and
medical), used for industrial gauging applications and in medical systems in cancer hospitals. When these sources
are disposed illegally (not following the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board guidelines) it is likely that they come into
scrap metal supply chain system, Steel /foundry mills who own smelting furnaces get the scrap metal from this
scrap supply chain system, leading to radioactive contamination of the end products made from the ingots processed
through these smelting furnaces.
Exports of engineering products and other steel construction materials made of steel, iron, alloy and castings, to
countries such as the UK, US and EU are growing from India. Radioactive contamination in steel, iron, alloy, castings
and allied products meant for exports has become a serious issue these days. Lot of radioactive contamination cases
have been reported by steel / foundry industry.
It is now essential for the Indian / Steel and foundry industry to wake up and take corrective steps to address these
issues of Radioactive Contamination (RaC). Incoming scrap metals as well as outgoing finished products are to be
thoroughly inspected for Radioactive Contamination (RaC), before exporting them to foreign countries to avoid
embarrassment, heavy losses and damage to reputation. Developed countries are rejecting even very low-level
radioactive contaminated products from India.
To address these above issues and find solutions to the above problems faced by the steel industry, Nucleonix
Systems with vast design experience in Nuclear Instrumentation, has developed four products to meet the steel
industry’s demand to check / inspect their incoming scrap metal and also their end products for Radioactive
Contamination (RaC) in different situations. Nucleonix Systems has studied some of the export-rejected
contaminated samples as part of this exercise to offer best possible product design for Radioactive Contamination
(RaC) measurement to the steel industry. These four products developed inc lude:
1. Rad Check Meter RC705 I&E
a. With Internal detector
b. With External detector probe
2. Truck / Container Monitoring System for Radioactive Contamination (Type: TR1020)
3. Gamma Ray Spectroscopy System for Radioactive Contamination Measurement by Nuclide Identification & its
quantification. (To measure contamination in Bq/gram)
4. Package Monitoring System (Type :PMS 1009)
