Title: Optimisation of the management of solid radioactive waste converted from Iodine.131 therapy in nuclear medicine

Authors: Abdul-Wali Ajlouni; Suha Ahmed Omar; Sultan B. Alghamdi; Naseem F. Assiri; Tahani Almutairi; Hassna N. Bantan; Mashaal AlKhaldi; Adil S. Alsaloom; Naif M. Alqahtani; Omemh Bawazeer

Addresses: Anfas Arabia Group, Al Olaya St. – Al Babtain Complex, 12333, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ' International Medical Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ' Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Department, Security Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ' Radiology Department, King Abdullah Medical Complex, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ' Nuclear Medicine Department, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ' Radiology Department, King Abdullah Medical Complex, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ' King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Radiation Oncology Department, Dammam, Saudi Arabia ' Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Department, Security Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ' Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Department, Security Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ' Physics Department, College of Applied Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: This paper aims to optimise and enhance the treatment process of the medical radioactive waste package resulting from using the Iodine-131 isotope. An experimental study involving solid medical radioactive waste generated from the nuclear medicine department is collected and stored properly. Surface radioactivity of all radioactive waste packages was measured, one time per week, by Como 170 digital survey meter, in Bq/cm² unit. The study included 14 waste packages generated from the nuclear medicine department. The main results of this study are: 1) the normalised surface activity of all packages reached 0.64% of the initial normalised surface activity by the end of week 8, i.e., more than 99% of the radioactivity of waste packages decayed within eight weeks, which indicates achieving the value considered within the exemption level by the end of week 8; 2) the highest surface activity of 202 Bq/cm², reached the exemption level of 4 Bq/cm² in day 46. Hence, the time needed theoretically and experimentally equals 6 to 7 weeks, which is just 60% to 78% of 10 half-life period of I-131, or 80 days; 3) a semi-empirical equation is retrieved from the experimental results.

Keywords: Iodine-131; management of radioactive waste; optimisation; solid radioactive wastes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEC.2025.147296

International Journal of Power and Energy Conversion, 2025 Vol.16 No.3, pp.238 - 256

Received: 26 Dec 2023
Accepted: 09 Mar 2024
Published online: 14 Jul 2025 *

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