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The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), as the secretariat for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), published the revised laboratory decommissioning standard ANSI/ASSE Z9.11 in February 2016.
The ANSI/ASSE Z9.11 “Laboratory Decommissioning” standard has been used successfully by national and international entities including universities, government agencies and decommissioning service providers to facilitate their laboratory decommissioning needs. ANSI requires that standards be maintained by review or affirmation of the entire document on a schedule not to exceed five years from the date of its approval as an American National Standard.
Farhad Memarzadeh, Ph.D., P.E., National Institutes of Health (NIH), chaired the ANSI Standard.
A twelve-member subcommittee representing federal agencies (NIH, National Regulatory Commission [NRC]); Universities (MIT, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan); Pharmaceutical Companies (Millennium, Inc., Emergent BioSolutions) and private consultants with experience in laboratory decommissioning (Alliance BioScience, Life Support Services, McCarthy Holdings, Inc., and SCB Compose) revised the standard.
The intent of ANSI/ASSE Z9.11-2016 is to provide an overarching roadmap for the research laboratory decommissioning process that can assist an institution in developing its own decommissioning plan. The standard identifies the minimum acceptable criteria for completing the decommissioning process, and documenting the necessary information for regulatory and historical purposes. Those involved in the development of a decommissioning plan for a research laboratory of any size will benefit by this guidance document.
ANSI/ASSE Z9.11-2016 was carefully reviewed to ensure that the updated standard reflects acceptable procedures and techniques. The subcommittee added new definitions, acronyms and additional applicable reference regulations; a new section on the risk assessment and characterization of radiological hazards in relation to NRC regulations; a new appendix, ‘Crisis Management Planning for Decommissioning Project’s and revised tables and diagrams that are more user friendly.