Performance Criteria for Sealed Sources

(A) Requirements for sealed sources installed after July 1, 1993: (1) Must have been registered in accordance with 105 CMR 120.128(N); (2) Must be doubly encapsulated; (3) Must use radioactive material that is as nondispersible as practical and that is as insoluble as practical if the source is used in a wet-source-storage or wet-source-change irradiator; (4) Must be encapsulated in a material resistant to general corrosion and to localized corrosion, such as 316L stainless steel or other material with equivalent resistance if the sources are for use in irradiator pools; and, (5) In prototype testing of the sealed source, must have been leak tested and found leak-free after each of the tests described in 105 CMR 120.641(B) through (G). (B) Temperature: The test source must be held at -40°C for 20 minutes, 600°C for one hour, and then be subjected to thermal shock test with a temperature drop from 600°C to 20°C within 15 seconds. (C) Pressure: The test source must be twice subjected for at least five minutes to an external pressure (absolute) of two million newtons per square meter. (D) Impact: A 2-kilogram steel weight, 2.5 centimeters in diameter, must be dropped from a height of one meter onto the test source. (E) Vibration: The test source must be subjected three times for ten minutes each to vibrations sweeping from 25 hertz to 500 hertz with a peak amplitude of five times the acceleration of gravity. In addition, each test source must be vibrated for 30 minutes at each resonant frequency found. (F) Puncture: A 50-gram weight and pin, 0.3-centimeter pin diameter, must be dropped from a height of one meter onto the test source. (G) Bend: If the length of the source is more than 15 times larger than the minimum cross- sectional dimension, the test source must be subjected to a force of 2000 newtons at its center equidistant from two support cylinders, the distance between which is ten times the minimum cross-sectional dimension of the source.