Implementation of BAPETEN chairman regulation no. 16 years 2013 for extracting rare earth elements from TENORM materials

Rare earth metals are elements (REE) of lanthanides metal which are mostly made use in industrial and medical fields. Smelting process of tin or zircon will produce TENORM (Technologically enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material) materials, such as monazite, zircon, and ilmenite. The TENORM minerals will contain rare earth metals. There are many smelting industries of tin or zircon in Indonesia. Therefore, they show a high potency of rare earth metals in this country. BAPETEN Chairman’s Regulation (BCR) No. 16 Year 2013 (BCR No. 16/2013) [1], concerning Radiation Safety of Storage of TENORM, allows TENORM producers to take out the metal or non-metal minerals in the TENORM materials after they get a technical recommendation from BAPETEN. This paper aims to provide a consideration concerning the criterion to gain a technical recommendation. This paper organized and reviewed BCR No. 16/2013 and compared it to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safety standard. Rare earth minerals are always present together with other elements, including radionuclides from U or Th series. REE minerals from Bangka Island contain monazite and xenotime, radioactive elements like Th which detected at 6–7 % in monazite and less than 2 % in xenotime, respectively. While safety report series of IAEA states that content of rare earth ore consists of 5–6 % REEs and 0.04 % Th oxide (or 4.7 % REEs and 0.035 % Th). The TENORM material utilization as regulated on BCR 16/2013 is the same with conditional clearance terminology for radioactive materials. Trivial dose approach that is a conditional clearance can be considered as a technical recommendation criterion. This is because it does not need radiation protection pre-requisites after getting the technical recommendation. The upper level of trivial individual effective dose is equivalent to 100 µSv per year. The dose assessment should consider the exposure pathways to the non-radiation workers (public), specifically those who get involved in external and internal exposure.