Nuclear Designing of a Blood Irradiator Facility for Research and Medical Applications Using Cobalt-60 Line Sources

Nowadays, the irradiation of blood and blood products, as well as sterilization of pharmaceuticals and biological materials used in the medical industry, are being carried out in developed countries and some developing countries. Usually for this purpose, self-contained dry source storage irradiators containing cesium-137 or cobalt-60 gamma ray sources with activity up to 3 kCi are used as blood irradiator facilities. In this research, an attempt was made to use the MCNPX code to perform the calculations related to the nuclear design of a blood irradiator facility using cobalt-60 line sources in two parts of iso-dose curves and shielding according to internationally accepted standards. The dose uniformity ratio inside the irradiation chamber was about 2 and the external dose rate at a distance of 5 cm from the surface of the gamma cell device was about 36 µSv/h and below the allowable limit. The results showed that the iso-dose curves were completely symmetric and the delivered dose increased near the cobalt-60line sources while decreasing as the distance away from the line sources and closer to the cylindrical axis of the irradiation chamber. In addition, the results showed that the designed lead shield with an average thickness of 30 cm easily blocks the gamma rays and in terms of health physics, working with such a blood irradiator will not pose any risk of radiation to employees.