The effectiveness of wastewater treatment in nuclear medicine: Performance data and radioecological considerations.
For planned and ongoing storage of liquid radioactive waste in a designated plant for a nuclear medicine therapy ward (decontamination system/decay system), detailed knowledge of basic parameters such as the amount of radioactivity and the necessary decay time in the plant is required. The design of the plant at the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the University of Cologne, built in 2001, was based on assumptions about the individual discharge of activity from patients, which we can now retrospectively validate. The decontamination factor of the plant is at present in the order of 10-9for131I. The annual discharges have been continuously reduced over the period of operation and are now in the region of a few kilobecquerels. This work emphasizes the high efficacy of the decontamination plant to reduce the amount of radioactivity released from the nuclear medicine ward into the environment to almost negligible levels.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: Ferdinand.Sudbrock@uk-koeln.de.
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F
Sudbrock
Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Germany.
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K
Schomäcker
Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Germany.
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A
Drzezga
D003666:Decontamination / Q000379:methods; D017744:Medical Waste Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D009683:Nuclear Medicine; D011850:Radioactive Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D062065:Wastewater; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
D017744:Medical Waste Disposal; D011850:Radioactive Waste; D062065:Wastewater; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive
Discharge control; Liquid radioactive waste; Radioecology; Radioiodine therapy; Wastewater radioactivity