Generally speaking, these kinds of devices can be handled by a layperson over the short term. It's really a question of what happens afterwards. Cobalt-60 was mentioned earlier. We in Canada—OPG and Bruce Power—send cobalt-60 sources all over the world. Eighty per cent of the market is from Canada.
What they don't mention, however, is that all of that cobalt-60 comes back to us as radioactive waste. In fact, the largest component that's going into the radioactive waste mound at Chalk River—99% of it—is cobalt-60. That's the problem with these radioactive materials. Radioactivity cannot be shut off. That's why nuclear reactors melt down, even after they're shut off, because the radioactivity generates so much heat that it will melt the core of the reactor.
It's this long-term legacy waste that is left behind that constitutes an enormous burden on future generations.