Verification of Reaching the Regulatory Limit for the Release of Radioactive Liquid Waste in Nuclear Medicines

Abstract

The research was conducted at one of Iraq's nuclear medical facilities in Baghdad, which uses radioactive iodine (I-131) to treat thyroid patients, the major purpose of this research was to meet the national legal limit for the release of radioactive liquid waste into the environment, a high purity germanium reagent radiation detector was used to evaluate nine iodine I-131 samples. From 2021 and 2023, the concentration of waste prior to storage and disposal was between 24498 Bq/L and 5.7 Bq/L. Short-lived radionuclides, such as I-131 with an 8.04-day halflife, may be released into the sewage system in line with Iraq's Nationally Approved Limits and Austria's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Moreover, it is stored for 10 times the half-life, or four months, until the choice to release it into the environment is made.