Big Collection WWII Aircraft Instrument Panels and Instruments confiscated

[Huub Vink]

Originally Posted by Pim-Pouw

I wouldn't agree with this conclusion. The degree mentioned by Huub Vink : Radiation protection Decree (Besluit Stralingsbescherming) is there to protect employees.

Hi Pim, nice to meet you here as well, but I think you are wrong here. This Decree is much wider than just the employer- employee relation (In fact only chapter 7 covers occupational exposure.)

It contains the legal requirements for possession (het voor handen hebben) en working with and manufacturing (handelingen en vervaardigen), storage is seen as "working with" however storage in relation to transport isn't. The decree provides even the requirements the medical world must meet when they expose their patient to radiation.

The main reason behind this is that in the Netherlands radiation is not covered by the Enviromental Act (Wet Millieubeheer) and the Dangerous Goods Act (Wet Millieu gevaarlijke stoffen, see Article 3 from this Act). Therefore the Nuclear(energy) Act" (Kernenergiewet) and the Radiation protection Decree cover all aspects of radiation.

The base on which possession is illegal is Article 29 from the Nuclear Act, which refers to the substances defined in the Decree.

Originally Posted by Luc Vervoort

Is it not possible to remove the radium(or wathever substance) from the instruments, so that they are (almost) radium-free and no longer to be considered as dangerous ?

It is possible, however you this will be costly and can only be done by experts. And you should wonder whether the instrument still has its value as "original". I can't remember which organisation did was, but a historical organisation replaced all Radium painted dails in their aircrafts by photografic repoductions.

Regards,
Huub

[Pim-Pouw]

Hi Huub,

Started to read the Nuclear(energy) Act" (Kernenergiewet) , this mention a limit of 10e5 Becquerel for Radium. I found a document which puts a wristwatch at aprox a maximum of 0.2 uCu which would put it within the limit but an aircraft instrument will use a lot more radium.

Have you ever done measurements on aircraft instruments ?

I slightly disagree with your conclusions about "working with" is the same as storage and the same as possesion. If we take Mercury as an example. You are allowed possesion of this material, but if you store it in such a way that it will harm your surroundings , that is nature , people , animals etc you will be in violation of the enviromental act.


Please correct me if I am wrong.

Greetings, Pim

[Huub Vink]

As I don't have the same documents and I don't have all the limits for every nuclide in my head I can not confirm or deny that an activity of 74 kBq on a wristwatch is below the threshold above which a permit is required.

Radium is an alpha emitter. As the alphas are blocked by the glass of the instrument you can only measure the secondary radiation. It is therefore virtually impossible to calculate the real activity. But on several instruments I have measured a dose rate above 25 µSv/hr, while the exposure limit for non-radiation workers is 1 µSv/hr.

As it is very hard to translate Dutch legislation I will write you an e-mail to explain the legal context. (I still must have your e-mail address somewhere).

For the Americans there isn't a real problem. In the US an aviation instrument is considered a sealed unit, therefore the presence of radio-active material is not taken in account.

Regards,
Huub

[taitbb]

Here is a link to the Canadian legislation.

http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/r...es/index.cfm#3

A2. A person may possess, transfer and use any number of radium luminous devices without a licence, provided that radium is the only nuclear substance in the device and the device is intact and not tampered with.

Q8. What about public displays? A8. If a radium luminous device is on display, a public access boundary should be placed to exclude access to at least one metre from the display. Radium luminous devices should never be used in ‘hands-on’ displays.

[Flying_pencil]

I realize this has been a while, but any news on this?

Also, it is a important lesson for the rest of us.

S!

[wwiiaircraftinstruments]

Hello,

There is still no news regarding the confiscation of my WWII instruments!!

Though I did receive scans of the confiscated items a while ago.

Just send me an email and I will forward it to you.

Kind regards,

Liad van Praag