Management of Spent Radiation Source from Radiotherapy

Nowadays the use of radioactive source for both radiodiagnostic and radiotherapy in Indonesia hospital increases rapidly. Sealed source used in radiotherapy among others for brachytherapy, teletherapy, bone densitometry, whole blood irradiation and gamma knife (radiosurgery). In line with this, the waste of spent radiation sources will be generated in hospitals. Of course these spent radiation sources must be treated correctly in order to maintain the safety of both the public and the environment. According to the Act No. 10/1997, BATAN, in care of the Radioactive Waste Management Center is the national appointed agency for the management of radioactive waste. The option for waste management by hospitals needs to be expound, either by re-exporting to the supplier of origin, re-exporting to other supplier, re-use by other licensee or sending to the Radioactive Waste Management Center. Usually the waste sent by the hospitals to the center comprises of sealed radiation source of 60Co, 137Cs or 226Ra. The management of spent radiation source in the center is carried out in several steps i.e. conditioning, temporary storage, and long-term storage (final disposal). The conditioning of non 226Ra is carried out by placing the waste in a 200 litter drum shell, 950 or 350 litter concrete shells, depends on the activity and dimension of the spent radiation source. The conditioning of 226Ra is carried out by encapsulating the waste in a stainless steel container for long-term storage shield which then placed in a 200 litter drum shell. The temporary storage of the conditioned spent radiation source is carried out by storing it in the center's temporary storages, either low or medium activity waste. Finally, the conditioned spent radiation source is buried in a disposal facility. For medium half-life spent radiation source, the final disposal is burial it in a shallow-land disposal; mean while, for long half-life spent radiation source, the final disposal is burial it in a deep geological disposal. In order to have a safe and economical disposal of the spent radiation source, it needs to develop disposal in bore-holes for both shallow-land and deep geological disposal. (author)