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Designing of sophisticated automatic lead shielding to reduce radiation dose of 99mTc

NAJAMA ZIA1, M. FAKHAR-E-ALAM2,* , M. ATIF3, W. A. FAROOQ3,* , M. HAMMAD AZIZ2, AFZAL NADEEM4, NAVEED AKHTAR SHAD4, ZIA-UL-HAQ4, M. R. BAIG3

Affiliation

  1. Department of Physics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
  2. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, G C University, Faisalabad, Pakistan
  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, college of Science P. O. Box 2455, King Saud University Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
  4. Punjab Institute of Nuclear Medicine Hospital, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Abstract

In order to apply ALARA principle, a highly sophisticated automated lead shielding was designed to reduce radiation dose from 99mTc to the working staff in nuclear medicine/health centers. An automated IR sensor based radioactive container with movable lid was fabricated in order to reduce radiation exposure time. In case of existing radioactive storage containers, radiation protection aim was compromised due to heavy weight lid of containers used for the shielding purpose. In this research work lid of container was supported with electromechanical assembly and infrared sensors. Infrared sensors were adjusted as to facilitate automatic movement of lid. Timing for opening and closing of lid was optimized and adjusted as per requirement. The reduction of radiation dose per month for technologists with this designed shielding was calculated from 37.5 μSv to 1.3 μSv. Implementation of designed shielding in nuclear medicine center helped in achieving average percentage attenuation of 96.56%. Therefore the operating philosophy for maintaining the occupational doses as low as reasonably achievable was made possible with the help of this designed shielding..

Keywords

Lead shielding, Technetium-99(99mTc), Radioactive material, Radiopharmaceutical, Electromechanical assembly.

Submitted at: March 14, 2013
Accepted at: March 13, 2014

Citation

NAJAMA ZIA, M. FAKHAR-E-ALAM, M. ATIF, W. A. FAROOQ, M. HAMMAD AZIZ, AFZAL NADEEM, NAVEED AKHTAR SHAD, ZIA-UL-HAQ, M. R. BAIG, Designing of sophisticated automatic lead shielding to reduce radiation dose of 99mTc, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 16, Iss. 3-4, pp. 443-450 (2014)