Nuclear Substances and Radiation Devices Regulations (SOR/2000-207)

• 5.1 (1) A person may, without a licence, abandon or dispose of a radioactive nuclear substance if the activity or the activity concentration of the substance does not exceed

  • (a) its exemption quantity;

  • (b) its conditional clearance level; or

  • (c) its unconditional clearance level.

• (2) Subsection (1) does not apply in respect of

  • (a) Category I nuclear material, Category II nuclear material or Category III nuclear material, as those terms are defined in section 1 of the Nuclear Security Regulations; or

  • (b) discharges of effluents from

    • (i) Class I nuclear facilities, as defined in section 1 of the Class I Nuclear Facilities Regulations, or

    • (ii) mines or mills, as those terms are defined in section 1 of the Uranium Mines and Mills Regulations.

6. A person may, without a licence to carry on that activity, possess, transfer, use or abandon a smoke detector that contains a nuclear substance, if

• (a) the smoke detector does not contain more than 185 kBq of americium 241 or, where it is in a commercial or industrial facility, more than 740 kBq of americium 241;

• (b) the radiation dose rate does not exceed 1 µSv per hour at 0.1 m from any of the accessible surfaces of the smoke detector;

• (c) the design and construction of the smoke detector prevent persons from making direct contact with the nuclear substance that it contains under normal conditions of use;

• (d) all markings and labels on the smoke detector are legible;

• (e) the radioactive nuclear substance contained in the smoke detector is a sealed source that, when it is mounted in its holder, conforms to International Standard 2919, Radiation Protection — Sealed radioactive sources — General requirements and classification (1999), of the International Organization for Standardization; and

• (f) the smoke detector meets the tests specified in the annex entitled Prototype Tests of the Recommendations for ionization chamber smoke detectors in implementation of radiation protection standards (1977) of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

7. A person may, without a licence to carry on that activity, possess, transfer, use or abandon a tritium-activated self-luminous safety sign if

• (a) the only nuclear substance contained in the safety sign is tritium;

• (b) the safety sign contains no more than 925 GBq of tritium in gaseous form;

• (c) the light-emitting component containing the tritium consists of glass tubes that are enclosed in a sturdy metal or plastic frame mounted in a manner that prevents the dismantlement and removal of the glass tubes;

• (d) the amount of tritium present in the form of oxide does not exceed 1 per cent per volume for each glass tube;

• (e) the safety sign conforms to ANSI/HPS N43.4-2000, Classification of Radioactive Self-Luminous Light Sources, of the American National Standards Institute/Health Physics Society, or to Standard MIL-STD-810F, 2000, Department of Defense Test Method Standard for Environmental Engineering Considerations and Laboratory Tests, of the United States Department of Defense; and

• (f) the safety sign, if it is manufactured after the coming into force of this paragraph, is marked with the name and quantity in becquerels of the nuclear substance, the manufacturer’s recommended expiry date for the sign and the date of manufacture of the sign.