期刊Evaluation of potential induced radioactivity in medical products as a function of electron energy in electron beam sterilization.pdfVIP

Radiation Physics and Chemistry 81 (2012) 57–63 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Radiation Physics and Chemistry journal homepage: /locate/radphyschem Evaluation of potential induced radioactivity in medical products as a function of electron energy in electron beam sterilization Mark A. Smith a,b,n a Sterigenics International, 10811 Withers Cove Park Drive, Charlotte, NC 28211, USA b Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Commercial sterilization of medical devices may be performed using electron beam irradiators at Received 25 March 2011 various electron energies. The potential for activating components of the devices has been discussed, Accepted 17 August 2011 with current standards stating that electron energy greater than 10 MeV requires assessment of Available online 7 September 2011 potential induced radioactivity. This paper evaluates the potential for induced activity in medical Keywords: products sterilized in electron beam as a function of the electron maximum energy. Monte Carlo Activation simulation of a surrogate medical device was used to calculate photon and neutron fields resulting from Induced activity electron irradiation, which were used to calculate concentrations for several radionuclides. e-beam