The Off-Site Source Recovery Program is a U.S. Government activity sponsored by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Radiological Security (ORS) and managed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The program mission is to remove, safely secure, and disposition excess, unwanted, or disused radioactive sealed sources that pose a potential risk to national security, public health, and safety. In cases where permanent disposal or long-term storage facilities are not available, LANL has developed the Secure In-Place Storage System (SIPS) to serve as an intermediate storage solution.

The lack of access to proper, licensed storage or permanent disposition pathways for disused sealed radioactive sources (DSRS) in ORS partner countries may pose a concern to source owners, regulatory bodies, and the public. Therefore, a cost effective, safe, and secure means to store radioactive sources and devices in the absence of a centralized facility is necessary for countries to ensure proper management of DSRS. The system should be safe, provide security features, easy to use, cost effective, robust, and yet due to the end-of-life management goal for DSRS of disposal, retrievability is an important feature.  The SIPS system is designed to allow for retrieval of disused sources while still providing substantial security against unauthorized intrusion.

In cases where expensive storage infrastructure is unrealistic, the benefit of employing SIPS outweighs the risk of improper storage or abandonment. While not meant as a final solution, SIPS is vital to threat reduction by emphasizing a cradle-to-grave policy on DSRS and bridging the gap between end-of-use and disposal.