Today's Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2013
AERB
NUCLEAR MEDICINE

Nuclear Medicine Facility

Guidelines to Set up a Nuclear Medicine Facility

In Nuclear Medicine (NM), the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures using unsealed radioisotopes shall be carried out only in a facility approved by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). The approved nuclear medicine facility should not be located in the residential building and shall comply with all the regulatory requirements as specified in the AERB safety code on nuclear medicine facilities AERB/RF-MED/SC-2(Rev.2),2011. All the application forms pertaining to nuclear medicine facility which are required to be submitted during various stages for its approval are available at www.aerb.gov.in.

The various stages of approval of nuclear medicine facility by AERB are given as follows:

1. Site and Layout Plan Approval
2. Application for Authorization for Commissioning of the Facility
3. Pre-commissioning Inspection.
4. Approval for Commissioning / Routine Operation.
5. Decommissioning.

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Guidelines to Set up a Medical Cyclotron Facility

A new era of Nuclear Medicine diagnosis has started with Medical Cyclotron technology. Medical Cyclotron produces mainly positron emitters, which can be used in molecular imaging of the organs. In Medical Cyclotron, particles such as protons, deuterons are accelerated and made to bombard to a suitable target material to produce positron-emitting radioisotopes. The positron emitters are produced by the (p,a), (p, n) or (d, n) reaction. The neutron activation of the surrounding medium draws the major attention in radiation safety. The medical cyclotrons are mainly classified as self-shielded or non self-shielded one. The self-shielded medical cyclotrons are incorporated with heavy shielding around the cyclotron. Additional structural shielding needs to be provided for non self-shielded medical cyclotron to reduce the radiation levels to within safe limits.

A chemical synthesis module is necessary to prepare radiopharmaceutical from the positron emitting radioisotopes produced in medical cyclotron. The accelerated particles may lead to activation of materials around the target and leave residual radioactivity. Although, the radioactive isotopes produced due to neutron activation are generally of short half-lives, their accumulated activity should be considered while handling the shielding materials, parti cularly the components near to the target that are likely to get activated to significant levels.

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