Radioactive Waste Handling, Decontamination/Disinfection, and Disposal
Work involving radioactive isotopes is permitted in the BSL-3 facility for authorized, licensed users and only in designated areas. All BSL-3 facility users who work with radioactive materials must record all radioactive usage and disposal or decay in logbooks and must adhere to University of penn Radiation Safety and NRC guidelines. All work surfaces, gloves, and equipment as well as the user must be monitored during and after use of radioactivity. Paper towels, gloves, etc., used during the process must be placed inside a radioactive waste bag for disposal.
Any contamination must be cleaned up with a mixture of 2% Virkon. Large spills must be reported to the BSL-3 Laboratory Manager or the Wistar Safety Officer.
B. Solid Radioactive Waste
Solid radioactive waste should be placed into a sealable plastic bag, labeled clearly and correctly, and stored in the waste container designated for the particular isotope used. Disposal and decay of solid radioactive waste must be logged in the correct logbook. All solid radioactive waste in the BSL-3 facility is treated as infectious and therefore will undergo a period of decontamination -- this usually consists of an incubation of at least one hour in a 65°C oven-- before disposal or decay.
1 3H and 125I (disposed outside of the BSL-3 facility)
Any waste bag produced must be decontaminated before being removed from the BSL-3 facility and disposed of properly in the radioactive disposal areas of the Wistar Institute (currently, the Fourth Floor disposal area).
2 32P (decayed inside the BSL-3 facility)
Any waste bags produced must be placed inside the containers designated for decay. Waste bags, once decayed, will then be decontaminated before being disposed of in the large red-bag-lined autoclavable biohazardous waste buckets used for "general waste".
The Wistar Institute
Biosaftey Level 3 Laboratory Code of Practice