(Vienna) – In advance of the 2015 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference from 27 April to 22 May 2015 at UN Headquarters in New York, the “P5 States” (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) have issued a statement on the need to minimise radioxenon emissions from medical isotope production facilities into the environment.
Certain isotopes of the noble gas xenon – called radioxenon in its radioactive forms are detected by the International Monitoring System (IMS). Through these detections, the nuclear nature of an event detected through seismic, infrasound or hydroacoustic means is confirmed. When complete, the IMS will include 40 stations capable of detecting radioxenon. Today, 22 are certified and another eight already installed. Around 18,000 samples of xenon are registered per year.
Radioxenon is a by-product whose releases can be controlled but not curbed entirely during the production of medical isotopes. While they do not pose any health risk, but the readings from these emissions look similar to those of a nuclear explosion, and can reduce the IMS’s overall detection capabilities. At the 2013 CTBT: Science and Technology Conference in Vienna, a major European producer of radioisotopes agreed to cooperate with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) in mitigating these effects.
(Courtesy WAM)
