An overview of radioactive waste disposal procedures of a nuclear medicine department

Abstract

Radioactive wastes from hospitals form one of the various types of urban wastes, which are managed in developed countries in a safe and organized way. In countries where growth of nuclear medicine services are envisaged, implementations of existing regulatory policies and guidelines in hospitals in terms of handling of radioactive materials used in the treatment of patients need a good model. To address this issue, a brief description of the methods is presented. A designed prototype waste storage trolley is found to be of great help in decaying the I-131 solid wastes from wards before releasing to waste treatment plant of the city. Two delay tanks with collection time of about 2 months and delay time of 2 months alternately result in 6 releases of urine toilet effluents to the sewage treatment plant (STP) of the hospital annually. Samples of effluents collected at releasing time documented radioactive releases of I-131 much below recommended levels of bi-monthly release. External counting of samples showed good statistical correlation with calculated values. An overview of safe procedures for radioactive waste disposal is presented.

Functionalized Nanomaterial Assembling and Biosynthesis Using the Extremophile Deinococcus radiodurans for Multifunctional Applications

“…Recently, the wide use of radioactive isotopes for medical and industrial applications has introduced drastic quantities of radioactive toxic pollutants and after‐use radioactive species to the environment . The serious adverse effects, such as genetic mutations, metabolic imbalances, and acute diseases, will follow due to the exposure of recalcitrant radioactive materials .…”

Silver Nanomaterial-Immobilized Desalination Systems for Efficient Removal of Radioactive Iodine Species in Water

“…In recent decades, radioactive isotopes have widely been used for industrial and medical applications that have introduced drastic quantities of radioactive toxic pollutants to the environment [ 1 , 2 ]. Among many radioactive isotopes, large amounts of after-use radioactive iodine species (iodines) have been discarded following applications in radiation therapies and biomedical studies [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Moreover, the recalcitrant characteristics of exposed radioactive materials contribute to serious adverse effects such as acute diseases, metabolic imbalances, and genetic mutations [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Treatment of Radiological Medical Waste Using Concrete Cubic Molds

“…Radioactive wastes from hospitals form one of the various types of urban wastes, which are managed in developed countries in a safe and organized way. In countries where growth of nuclear medicine services are envisaged, implementations of existing regulatory policies and guidelines in hospitals in terms of handling of radioactive materials used in the treatment of patients need a good model [1]. Although the comparison with other construction materials used in nuclear reactors, concrete has many advantages when it is utilized as a radiation shield, a set of conflicting requirements must be met in the selection of ingredients and mix proportions of concrete designed for the optimum attenuation of both gamma and neutron radiation.…”