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Management of Radioactive Waste in Nuclear Medicine
Published in Michael Ljungberg, Handbook of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging for Physicists, 2022
Most waste in nuclear medicine has a short half-life, which enables radioactive decay before transportation to a disposal facility. Transportation of radioactive waste or other radioactive sources is often classified as transportation of dangerous goods and must be performed in accordance with international recommendations and regional and national regulations.
Radiation Protection Regulation
Published in W. P. M. Mayles, A. E. Nahum, J.-C. Rosenwald, Handbook of Radiotherapy Physics, 2021
Mike Rosenbloom, W. P. M. Mayles
A distinction should be drawn between the disposal of a radioactive source as waste and the transfer of the source to another organisation. For example, unused brachytherapy sources are usually returned to the manufacturer. In the case of permanent implants, such as iodine-125 prostate implants, the patient will be discharged from hospital with the implant in place. This is not classified as disposal as waste for regulatory purposes (see Section 60.4.3).
Introduction
Published in Debbie Peet, Emma Chung, Practical Medical Physics, 2021
Debbie Peet, Emma Chung, Jasdip Mangat, Joanne Cowe
In 1911, the Polish-born physicist Marie Sklodowska Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her discovery of the radioactive element, radium (Gasinska 2016). Her work demonstrated potential applications of radioactive sources in therapeutic medical procedures, leading to the development of Molecular Imaging and Radiotherapy techniques in the field of Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy.
Transcriptomics for radiation biodosimetry: progress and challenges
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2023
We live in an era of heightened concern over the possibility of large-scale radiological or nuclear events that may result from accidents, ecological disasters, or malicious intent. Damage to a power plant or detonation of a dirty bomb, in which conventional explosives are used to blow up and disperse a radioactive source, could result in potential widespread exposure to radionuclides in fallout. Detonation of an improvised nuclear device (IND) could result in radiological injuries from prompt radiation, contamination, and ingestion of radionuclides from fallout, as well as burn and crush injuries and extensive damage to infrastructure. In preparing for the response to such large-scale events, it is clear there will be a critical need to rapidly assess the level of radiological injury to individuals in order to appropriately ration medical countermeasures from limited stockpiles. As the general populace will not have physical radiation dosimeters, we must rely on measurements of biological responses to radiation to provide markers of exposure, dose, or injury.
Impact of nonionizing electromagnetic radiation on male infertility: an assessment of the mechanism and consequences
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2022
Rohit Gautam, Eepsita Priyadarshini, JayPrakash Nirala, Paulraj Rajamani
Commonly used sources of radiations include radiofrequency (100 kHz to 300 GHz), AM radio transmission (540 to 1600 kHz), FM radio transmission (76 to 108 MHz), mobile phones (800 MHz to 3 GHz), microwaves (2.45 GHz) and Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz) (Kesari et al. 2018). In contrast to nonionizing radiations, ionizing radiations are more deleterious exhibiting harmful effects via both thermal and non-thermal means. X rays, γ-rays and α-particles emitted from radioactive sources are classified as ionizing radiations. On exposure to these radiation, free radicals are generated which lead to oxidative stress-related damage to DNA, lipids and proteins (Reisz et al. 2014). Short-term as well as long-term exposure to these radiation affects both animals and humans. While in short-term studies (few minutes to hours) sperms are exposed to radiations under in vitro set-up, long-term exposing animal models to radiations for weeks to months (Singh et al. 2018). We have discussed in brief some of the widely used sources of radiofrequency radiations.
Estimation of energy absorption buildup factors of some human tissues at energies relevant to brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2019
Cancer is known to be a multigenic and multicellular disease that can arise from all cell types and organs with a multi-factorial etiology (Baskar et al. 2012). Following a cancer suffering, there may be an uncontrolled cell growth and a metastatic spread which may lead to death of an individual (Chaffer and Weinberg 2011). It has been reported by IARC (2014) that the global cancer burden stood around 14 million new cases in 2012, and is projected to 22 million in the next two decades (IARC 2014). X-rays and gamma rays are common types of radiation which are used to treat cancer by depositing their energy in medium resulting death of cancer cells. Among radiotherapy techniques, external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and brachytherapy (BT) are generally used to treat cancer. In BT, the radiation source is placed into the tumor itself or very close to the tumor, while in EBRT there is a distance between the radiation source and the patient (Skowronek 2017). The most common radioactive sources used in BT are Au-198, Co-60, Cs-137, I-125, Pd-103, Ir-192 and Ra-226, while in EBRT relatively high energy photons like 6 MV are used (Burger 2003). Moreover, the photons of 30 kV, 40 kV and 50 kV are known as intrabeam X-rays and are used for intraoperative radiotherapy (Biggs 2006).