Developing Radiation Treatment Methodologies for Decontamination for First Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Using Tunisian Electron Beam Accelerator

The Tunisian irradiation infrastructure was reinforced in end of 2009 by a high-energy electron beam accelerator with three energy levels (5, 7.5 and 10MeV). The electron beam facility represents the first semi-industrial scale in Tunisia and in North Africa. The facility is composed of RF linear accelerator of electrons, type CIRCE III and an electromechanical conveyor system. The main characteristics of this Linac are three energy levels of the E-beam with a maximum power of 5 kW. The E-beam is pulsed (12.5µs). The conveyor is able to transport boxes from size 40 × 30 × 20 cm3 to size of 80 × 50 × 50 cm3 for a weight range of 1-35 kg for and a speed range of 15-500 cm/min. The productivity estimated of this new facility is 2.2 m3/h for medical products irradiated at 25 kGy and 360 kg/h for spices at 10 kGy, 3.15m3/h for surgical masks at 5kGy and 3.52 m3/h for Face Shields at 5kGy. For (IQ), (OQ) and (PQ) Qualifications, two dosimetry films were used for the dose measurements: CTA (type FTR-125, dose range: 0.1–100 kGy) film measured at 280 nm using the Aerial Equipment and GEX B3 dosimeters 1 to 80 kGy.