Treatment of Radiological Medical Waste Using Concrete Cubic Molds

Ali Abdulwahab Ridha

doi:10.11648/j.ajn.20180403.12

Abstract

Concrete cubic molds were made and manufactured using a fixed percentage of cement and sand to be as a container for the radiological medical waste in order to prevent radiation during the transfer of radioactive waste from hospitals to their own landfill sites to preserve the safety of people and the environment from radiation pollution. The maximum dose rate was 173.744 µSv/h in NHTc2 sample measured using RAD EYE B20 dosimeter, which has a very high activity as a medical waste (28.568 µCi), while the lowest dose value 0.297 µSv/h and activity 0.041 µCi was for MCI4 sample, except the dead samples which less than detection limit for the NaI(Tl) system. Also, the efficiency calculations of manufactured molds with thickness 3 cm were done by using Ba-133 and Cs-137 as a point source, because of the energies of these sources are close to that for I-131 and Tc-99 m exist in the medical waste samples. The shielding percentages were calculated and have very high values with using concrete molds, and the dose rate decreases with increasing the sand in the mold. Measurement of resistivity to compression for the molds were done to acknowledgment the strength to hold radiological waste through transfers or store of these kinds of waste. We found that the increase of the cement percentage (chosen 10, 20 and 30%) leads to increasing the mold strength.

Highlights

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
A number of molds in the shape of a cube have been prepared with fixed percentages of cement and sand in order to prevent radiation during the transfer of radioactive waste from hospitals to their own landfill sites to preserve the safety of people and the environment from radiation pollution
The amount of cementation depends on the percentage of cement involved in the manufacture of the concrete mold, using 10, 20 and 30% cement with sand has shown to be very sufficient in manufacturing cement-based cubes that can be used for the isolation of radioactive waste

Summary

Introduction

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. One of the reasons seems to be the difficulty of separating the effects of irradiation from the changes, which take place at high temperatures in concrete subjected to high-intensity radiation. Another possible reason is that the extent of damage for a similar exposure varies with the concrete aggregate type and mix composition [3]. Most agreed that any reduction in exposure is enough to warrant shield use and that shields should be used when injecting doses, preparing radio pharmaceutic, and drawing up doses. There was greater agreement about the use of syringe shields during injection than about their use during preparation and drawing up doses. The issues relating to management of radioactive wastes, are very well formulated internationally, and guidelines for radioactive waste disposal are well documented [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]

Templates Preparation

Dose Measurement in the Templates

Results and Discussion

Conclusions

Recommendations