Issue 25 - October 2009
- Details
Authors: F. Drouet, P. Croüail (CEPN, France)
Introduction
In October 2008, the French nuclear safety authority (ASN) was informed about the detection of radioactivity in lift buttons, manufactured by a French company, MAFELEC. This company manufactures lift buttons whose metal base comes from India. The detection was made on the assembled buttons and it appeared that the 60Co contamination came from Indian suppliers. After investigation by the French authority, it turned out that MAFELEC has only one customer, OTIS, a lift company located in several places all over the world. As a consequence the distribution of contaminated buttons was not limited to France and measures to identify and remove buttons were taken in many countries in Europe.
At the occasion of the EAN Steering Group meeting in December 2008, discussions confirmed that many EAN countries had to deal with this issue. Then EAN decided to launch a request through its mailing list for information on the management of this event in European countries. Between January and July 2009, answers from 13 different countries were received. This article is a summary of these answers.
Read more: The management of the Co-60 contamination in lift buttons in European countries