Building a Home for Radioactive Waste in the Dominican Republic

The document describes the National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute's (NRWDI) facility in Sierra Prieta, Dominican Republic, which safely stores disused radioactive sources from medicine, industry, and mining. It explains that disused sources are transported, characterized, classified, conditioned, and stored in a centralized facility built in 2010, with storage durations ranging from a few years up to 50 years depending on activity. The facility is protected by fences, guards, cameras, armed military security, and radiation detectors, and is operated by trained staff under IAEA cooperation to ensure nuclear safety and security. The text highlights the facility’s role in preserving public safety and security by preventing access to radioactive materials and notes examples of high- and low-activity sources housed there, including orphan sources detected in scrap industries.