Answer to Question #7954 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Regarding fingerprinting and background checks for increased controls—what can a licensee do to allow people who come from another country (e.g., China) where they have a visa/passport (but obtaining a background check from their university may prove to be unfruitful) to come to this country and be employed so they can use a ¹³⁷Cs irradiator?

The key issue for licensees in performing the fingerprinting and background checks is that the licensee (or a contractor to that licensee) will need to fingerprint all individuals who would like to have unescorted access to the radioactive material, such as that for access to ¹³⁷Cs irradiators. The licensee needs to independently verify that individuals who request or need unauthorized access have background information that is factually correct to the extent possible (see Q&A #31 in the first Web site below), and they also need to be fingerprinted. The fingerprints still serve a purpose because the Federal Bureau of Investigation will check the prints against a terrorist watch list and the results from the criminal history checks still need to be taken into conjunction with the other Increased Controls for trustworthy and reliability checks that the university/employer has performed on the individual.
 
Here are the links for the Q&As (the originals and supplemental) for the Fingerprinting Order: 

• http://www.nrc.gov/security/byproduct/ea-07-305q&a.pdf
• http://www.nrc.gov/security/byproduct/icfp-supplemental-qa.pdf
  
  

Should you have additional questions, please contact your regulator, which will either be your state regulatory control program office or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, depending on the location of your license.  

Cynthia G. Jones, PhD