A proposed new configuration of a shuffle-dwell gamma irradiator

Abstract

A gamma irradiator is a well-developed installation for gamma radiation sterilization. A “shuffle-dwell” mode is preferable for high dose applications. A novel configuration of a shuffle-dwell gamma irradiator is proposed to increase energy utilization and throughput, which would result in higher profitability. While the minimum distance between any irradiation position and each source pencil, the minimum distance between the neighboring irradiation positions and the size of source pencils are kept the same as the current configuration, the irradiation positions and source pencils are rearranged based on the fact that radiation is emitted in an isotropic fashion. The computational results suggest that the proposed configuration requires an 8.7% smaller area and exposes the product to 11.8% more gamma radiation in a 10.7% shorter irradiation time. In other words, the proposed configuration needs a smaller area and shorter irradiation time to have a better performance compared to the current shuffle-dwell gamma irradiator. Note that the claim is based primarily on an analytical calculation. Experimental and manufacturing among other practical considerations will be taken into account in the future work to exhaustively evaluate the performance of the proposed configuration and to compare it with that of the traditional configuration.