Cesium-137 Blood IrradiatorReplacement & Removal - Experience at Morristown Medical Center

Blood Irradiators are often used to irradiate blood and blood components prior to transfusion to prevent the proliferation of certain types of T lymphocytes that can inhibit the immune response and cause graft-versus-host disease. Morristown Medical Center, which is part of Atlantic Health System based in northern New Jersey, employed a Cesium-137 Blood Irradiator for about 20 years. The Security enhancements and response protocols were set in place, in order to comply with the USNRC Increased Control Orders, as well as 10 CFR 37. The facility eventually came to the decision to replace the Cesium irradiator with an X-ray Irradiator. Factors such as irradiator performance, prohibitive regulations, security issues and cost savings, that affected the decision, will be discussed.Finally, a visual description of the day when our Cesium Irradiator was picked up for disposal, will be presented. It is hoped that our experience will engage other facilities to do the same in terms of replacing their Cs-137 irradiators with technologies that yield better performance and result in much less vulnerability from theft & sabotage involving high-activity radioactive materials.