Re: Hospital waste monitoring

[Ryanchp <Ryanchp@aol.com>]

Bill,

We use about the same quantity of Tc 99m as your hospital.  We started
monitoring our waste stream about 3 years ago, both as it arrives into the
waste treatment area and also when it is loaded on to the BFI trucks for
disposal.  We average over 200
waste bags per year which are held for decay and than released.  The "holding
tank"
is a large freezer, floor model type, and the bags are checked with a ludlum
micro "R" meter before release.  The use of detectors was initiated when BFI
installed the monitoring devices at there "red bag" handling facility and
would return the waste to the hospital as radioactive waste, notify the state
agency, and we'd be fined.  Now, very little red bag waste is detected as rad
waste, the white bag waste from the patient rooms are the 200 bags per year.
The monitoring devices are NaI(Tl) crystals hooked up to a crm.  The systems
are sold as a unit by Bicron.  These and the micro "R" meters are sold by the
Alantic Nuclear Corp., out of Boston MA. 

BoBb Ryan
ryanchp@aol.com