Decommissioning of a Linear Accelerator in Germany (Class 1) (Russian Edition)

One of the most common fields of use for linacs is the treatment of cancer in radiotherapy. These machines usually have a high workload because of the ever increasing need for cancer treatment. The normal lifetime of a device of this kind is between 10 and 20 years. There are different reasons for shutting down and decommissioning linacs. These include: (a) New technologies or methods of cancer treatment have become available, and the existing machine cannot be adapted to incorporate them. (b) Components of the machine, such as bearings, have failed or been damaged. (c) The supplier (manufacturer) of the machines in use within groups of hospitals has changed, and it is necessary to ensure that all the machines are the same for ease of staff rotation and maintenance. Decommissioning of the accelerator in this case study occurred owing to the last factor referred to above. The hospital in the study is related to one of the biggest hospital groups in Germany. The group renews its equipment on a regular basis. In this example, the total number of accelerators was to be increased and the department was to be uniformly supplied with machines from a single manufacturer over a three year period. Therefore, four old machines had to be decommissioned. The first linac was decommissioned by the hospital, but the remaining three machines were decommissioned by a commercial decommissioning company, namely Gamma-Service Recycling GmbH. The contractor was asked to submit a quote for the decommissioning of each remaining machine, and all three quotes were accepted. This case study describes the decommissioning of the last linac.