A gadget for safe transfer of the radioactive liquid (sodium molybdate solution) from a sealed vial to a storage vessel in the processing station

In Technetium Column Generator Production Facility (TCGPF project) of BRIT, a special facility for unloading radioactive liquid and transferring the liquid to storage vessel has been developed. This facility is having two cells with various gadgetries to accomplish various activities such as, picking the vials containing radioactive liquid from the transport cask, a conveyor for transferring the vial to another cell, de-capping and pooling. A special machine for transferring the sodium molybdate-99Mo solution 148 to 222 GBq (4-6Ci) to a pooling vessel has been designed and developed. It works on the principle of vacuum transfer, where the pooling vessel is under vacuum (connected to this machine). Vacuum required can be accessed from three different ways like through vacuum generator using compressed air or vacuum pump or can be tapped from the vacuum service line. In the existing facility, the borosilicate glass vial containing radioactive liquid is unsealed by using the hand-operated de-capper and then transferring the liquid in the pooling vessel manually. The developed machine expected to make radioactive liquid transfer job absolutely simple and safe, and can help in reducing the dose receivable by a radiation worker involved in this operation, drastically from 0.02mSv to whole body (in addition to 0.523mSv to hand), to 4.03x10-3mSv. (author)