Virginia Administrative Code › Title 12 - HEALTH › Agency 5 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH › Chapter 481 - VIRGINIA RADIATION PROTECTION REGULATIONS › Part XII - Licensing and Radiation Safety Requirements for Irradiators › Article 3 - Design and Performance Requirements for Irradiators › Section 12VAC5-481-2810 - Design requirements

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
A. For all
					 irradiators, licensees shall evaluate the location and sensitivity of the
					 monitor to detect sources carried by the product conveyor system as required by
					 12VAC5-481-2760
					 A. Licensees shall verify that the product conveyor is designed to stop before
					 a source on the product conveyor would cause a radiation overexposure to any
					 person.
B. For panoramic
					 irradiators:
1. Licensees shall design
					 shielding walls to meet generally accepted building code requirements for
					 reinforced concrete and design the walls, wall penetrations, and entrance ways
					 to meet the radiation shielding requirements of
					 12VAC5-481-2740. If the
					 irradiator will use more than 5 million curies (2 x
					 1017 Bq) of activity, licensees shall evaluate the
					 effects of heating of the shielding walls by the irradiator sources.
2. Licensees shall design the foundation,
					 with consideration given to soil characteristics, to ensure it is adequate to
					 support the weight of the facility shield walls.
3. Licensees shall verify from the design and
					 logic diagram that the access control system will meet the requirements of
					 12VAC5-481-2730.
4. Licensees shall verify that the number,
					 locations, and spacing of the smoke and heat detectors are appropriate to
					 detect fires and that the detectors are protected from mechanical and radiation
					 damage. Licensees shall verify that the design of the fire extinguishing system
					 provides the necessary discharge patterns, densities, and flow characteristics
					 for complete coverage of the radiation room and that the system is protected
					 from mechanical and radiation damage.
5. Licensees shall verify that the source
					 rack will automatically return to the fully shielded position if offsite power
					 is lost for more than 10 seconds.
6. Licensees shall verify that electrical
					 wiring and electrical equipment in the radiation room are selected to minimize
					 failures due to prolonged exposure to radiation.
7. Licensees shall determine that source rack
					 drops due to loss of power will not damage the source rack and that source rack
					 drops due to failure of cables (or alternate means of support) will not cause
					 loss of integrity of sealed sources.
8. Licensees shall review the design of the
					 mechanism that moves the sources to assure that the likelihood of a struck
					 source is low and that, if the rack sticks, a means exists to free it with
					 minimal risk to personnel.
9. For
					 panoramic irradiators to be built in seismic areas, licensees shall design the
					 reinforced concrete radiation shields to retain their integrity in the event of
					 an earthquake by designing to the seismic requirements of an appropriate source
					 or local building codes, if current.