System Design and Operational Strategy for Radiopharmaceutical Waste Decay Tanks Using Patient Load Profiling in a Hospital Nuclear Medicine Facility
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59261/jequi.v8i5.476Keywords:
Radiopharmaceutical Waste, Decay Tank, Nuclear Medicine, Patient Load Profiling, Clearance LevelAbstract
Background: Radiopharmaceutical liquid waste requires radionuclide-specific retention, whereas decay tanks are often sized based on average wastewater flow.
Objective: To develop a patient-load-based decay tank design and operating strategy for the planned nuclear medicine facility at Bali International Hospital.
Methods: An engineering design approach integrated planned weekly patient loads, administered activities, surveyed water use, and radioactive accumulation and decay modeling. The adopted aqueous discharge criterion was 0.01 MBq/L, derived from the iodine-131 (I-131) clearance level of 10 Bq/g.
Results: The planned service profile comprised 58 diagnostic and 42 therapeutic patients per week, generating 7,750 L and 3,900 L of wastewater, respectively. Following a 10-week filling period, therapeutic effluent was modeled to have an activity concentration of 4.43 MBq/L and required 11 weeks of isolated decay. Diagnostic effluent required approximately 39.6 hours to reach the criterion; a 3-day retention period was therefore adopted. The proposed segregated configuration comprises three 40,000-L therapeutic tanks and three 10,000-L diagnostic tanks. Segregation avoids approximately 85,000 L of additional storage compared with retaining diagnostic effluent for the therapeutic decay period.
Conclusion: Patient-load profiling supports distinct capacity and rotation strategies for diagnostic and therapeutic radioactive waste. Model-predicted compliance with the discharge criterion does not, by itself, authorize discharge without activity measurement, input reconciliation, and regulatory verification.
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