Trapping and re-use system for radioactive xenon in nuclear medicine

Abstract

Different methods of trapping radioactive xenon are reviewed. Trapping by adsorption on activated charcoal has the advantage of being simple and cheap and also makes it possible to recycle the xenon. An activated charcoal trapping system is described which can extract 133Xe from 1001 of expired air in 10 min from patients undergoing diagnostic pulmonary or circulation studies. Details of the construction are discussed. The trapped gas can be rapidly released and returned to the spirometer. Substantial reduction of costs can be achieved with 133Xe; this becomes even more important as accelerator-produced 127Xe comes into more general use.

A new instrument for survey monitoring of airborne xenon-133

“…A 3 mm lead shield was mounted on the outside of the Plexiglass tube to shield it from external radiation. The tube was then packed with 25 g of charcoal (type Picatif G210, Pica, France), which has previously been found to be useful for xenon adsorption (Bolmsjo and Persson 1978). A second tube was also tested with 15 g of the same charcoal.…”

Adsorption of Xenon, Krypton, and Their Mixture on the Flexible Metal–Organic Framework DUT-8(Ni)

“…Xenon and krypton are of increasing interest for research purposes as well as with respect to various applications. These noble gases are used, e.g., in medicine, as propellant for ion propulsion machines, lighting, as well as for chemical analysis and synthesis. − At a large scale, they are obtained as byproducts of cryogenic air separation. However, their extraction and separation is elaborate due to their very low concentration (0.087 ppmv for Xe, 1.14 ppmv for Kr) .…”

Grand Canonical Monte Carlo Simulation with MOF-303 and Metal-doped MOF-303

“…"Fluid nuclear wastes, like liquid or gaseous wastes, can easily mix into water or air, which humans can easily intake during their lives [2]. In particular, gaseous radioactive waste contains a large proportion of inert gases such as Xe and Kr, which are of great value in the semiconductor and biomedical industries [3][4][5][6]. For industrial utilization, selective capture of fission products needs to be achieved, and the capture capacity has to be increased to enable industrial utilization of fission products.…”