Supporting “PEACEFUL SAFE AND SECUR APLICATION” Palestine Supporting “PEACEFUL SAFE AND SECUR APLICATION”

National Sources Registry Palestine 20-23 March 2017 Vienna

Ismail Hroub Presented by: Director, Radiation Protection and Detection Unit Chair, National committee for cooperation with IAEA Physics lecturer at several Palestinian Universities Ismael_hr@yahoo.com Mobile: +970 56 240 217 6

Location of Palestine

A, B and C classified areas

Radiation Protection and detection Unit/MOH. Introduction Organization: Radiation Protection and detection Unit/MOH. Regulatory Body for peaceful application of ionizing radiation. Medical field 95%. Agriculture and research 5%. TC-Program with IAEA. Short Overview: Ordinary X-ray including: ( 99 Facility& 252 Radiation source). Plain X-ray, CT-Scan, Fluoroscopy, Panoramic, Angiography and MRI Nuclear Medicine: (3)Gamma-Camera and (3)PET-Scan.(Under construction). Radiotherapy: One facility of Iodine radiotherapy. Private sector.

Application of nuclear science and technology in Palestine Because of the current political situation we have a very limited application to Medical field and a Very low activity calibration sources and Smoke detector Practices Number of Facilities Number of workers Radiation sources   Remarks X - ray diagnostic 99 ~700 252 In Governmental and private sectors Radiotherapy 1 6 I-131 Iodine radiotherapy only for thyroid treatment Nuclear medicine 3 2 Technetium-99m F18 for PET

In details 35 Computerized Tomography CT- Scan. 12 Magnetic Resonance Imaging MRI. 16 C-arm. 12 Dental Imaging (3D Cone BeamCT). 31 Mammography. 35 Fluoroscopy. 10 Angiography 152 Plain Radiography. 51 Portable X-ray. 133 Panoramic X-ray. 3 Gamma Camera. 3 PET-CT (unde construction).

Radiotherapy department. Khalid Al-Hassan national hospital for Cancer treatment and Bone Marrow Transplantation 1/2 National plan is under establishing in which a hospital named “ Khalid Al-Hassan “ national hospital for Cancer treatment and Bone Marrow Transplantation. Building area will be 50,000 meter square: Radiotherapy department. CT-Simulator. (2) Brachytherapy machine. Linear Accelerator. (6) Radiology department. CT Scanner. (2) MRI Scanner. (2) Fluoroscopy Machine. (1) X-ray machine. (1)

Surgical Oncology department. Pediatric Oncology department. Khalid Al-Hassan national hospital for Cancer treatment and Bone Marrow Transplantation 2/2 NM department. PET-CT Scan (1) Gamma Camera with CT-Scanner (1) Gamma Camera with out CT-Scanner (1) Surgical Oncology department. Pediatric Oncology department. Adult Oncology department. Department For Continuing Medical Education.

National Regulatory infrastructure1/4 The Palestinian national law titled: “The Peaceful applications of atomic energy and Radiation Protection” has been reviewed by technical and legislative experts from deferent governmental entities. Recommendations of the IAEA team has been taken into account in the reviewing of the Draft law, amendments were made to be complied with the IAEA (GS-R-Part1 and the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources).

National Regulatory infrastructure 2/4 The final approval procedure at the constitutional level “The general secretariat of council of ministers” is ongoing process. Currently there is no constitutionally approved law, which is specific to radiation safety and the security of sources. so All activities related to the ionizing radiations are controlled by using Public health law and Environmental law.

National Regulatory infrastructure 3/4 Regulations National regulations for the protection from ionizing radiation named: “The regulations and provisions of Radiation protection from ionizing radiations” were drafted depending to GSR-3 publication as main reference: These regulations covering: Administrative requirements (notification, authorization, review and assessment, inspection and enforcement) Articles 18, 19 and 20 in the national regulations and Technical requirements (occupational protection (Articles 37-46), public protection (Articles 56-61), medical exposure (Articles 47-55), radioactive waste management (Articles 66-82), Transport of radioactive materials (Article 26)) and Emergency exposure situations)

National Regulatory infrastructure 4/4 Guidance and code of practices Guidance for the Nuclear Medicine and X Ray diagnostic practices has been approved and disseminated: “Radiation Safety Standards Guide in nuclear medicine” and “ The reference guideline for x-ray diagnostic” Guidance for the safe transport of radioactive materials is still under preparation. Currently efforts are being implemented to approve and publish New guidance’s in deferent topics. Note: Regulations and some codes have been applied in the areas of occupational and public exposure, but without any enforcement

Regulatory Body 1/2 Referred to the national law that has to be approved soon on the constitutional level, it has clearly stated on "section 2 Article 5" that Regulatory body is to be created to control the peaceful applications of atomic energy. This Regulatory body will grant the authorization and will be linked directly to the council of ministers to get the character of independency. Referring to the "section 2 Article 7" in the draft law document the responsibilities authorized to the regulatory body stated " Points 1-18".

Regulatory Body 2/2 The Radiation Protection and Detection Unit (RPDU) is the regulatory authority, it has both a promotional and regulatory role. The RPDU has a staff of 4 persons; 3 of them technical) and in Gaza (9 staff; 5 of them technical) but this number is not sufficient to execute the required RPDU tasks. The majority have been trained through IAEA fellowships and training courses. There are negotiating with MOH minister to hire more HR in RPDU.

Current status about National sources Registry National sources registry is available using local computerized system made by the MOH. Covering Radiation sources “Medical X-ray” only. Radioactive sources is not under the scope of this system. National survey for radiation and radioactive sources is in the preparative stage. A comprehensive source registry system needed to extend the scope to cover all radiation sources now and in the future practice development.

Future Action Plan Nationally looking for improving the regulatory infrastructure by approval of the Draft Law under which the regulations also to be approved and activated. Also looking for that the survey program is achieved and a comprehensive sources registry is established under the RAIS system.

Challenges The main challenges facing Palestine in establishing or improving the radiation safety infrastructure is: Priority at the government agenda on the national level ! Lack of financial resources. No sufficient experts. Shortage in the qualified HR in many specific fields. No political stability in the country and the region.

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