NRC Amends Radioactive Materials Medical Use Requirements
The changes will update training and experience requirements for authorized users, medical physicists, radiation safety officers, and nuclear pharmacists and also will allow associate radiation safety officers to be named on a medical license, among other things.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it has approved amendments to its requirements for medical uses of radioactive materials.
"A final rule, approved Aug. 17, modifies 10 CFR Part 35 and makes conforming changes to Parts 30 and 32. The rule will be published in the coming months in the Federal Register after the NRC staff makes certain revisions directed by the Commission," its announcement stated.
It says the changes "will amend the definition of medical events associated with permanent implant brachytherapy; update training and experience requirements for authorized users, medical physicists, radiation safety officers, and nuclear pharmacists; address a petition the NRC received seeking to recognize the qualifications of board certified physicists and radiation safety officers not specifically named on a license; change requirements for measuring molybdenum contamination and reporting generator tests that exceed allowed concentration levels; allow associate radiation safety officers to be named on a medical license; and make several minor clarifications."
The changes were made after NRC staff, stakeholders, and NRC's Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes identified a need for them. An NRC proposed rule was published July 21, 2014, in the Federal Register for public comment, and this final rule takes those comments into consideration and provides responses to them, according to the announcement.