Nuclear Medical Radiation Shielding
Tungsten alloy is ideal for shielding against X-rays and gamma radiation. The very high density of tungsten shielding (more than 60% denser than lead) allows a reduction in the physical size of shielding components, without compromising their rigidity or the effectiveness of the shielding characteristics. Tungsten heavy alloy shielding is used in applications such as collimator, nuclear shielding, beamstop, PET syringe shield, vial shield, isotope container, FDG container, multi leaf collimator etc.
Here are some main applications for nuclear medical radiation shielding:
Brachytherapy Positron emission tomography (PET) is one of the nuclear medicine techniques available for diagnosis. Whilst X-rays provide information on the structure of the body, PET shows the chemical function of a particular organism. PET involves the injection of FDG (a glucose-based radionuclide) from a shielded syringe into the patient. As the FDG travels through the patient’s body it emits gamma radiation which is detected by a gamma camera, from which the chemical activity within cells and organs can be seen. Any abnormal chemical activity may be a sign that tumors are present.
PET scans are frequently used to detect cancerous tumors and diseases of the brain and coronary arteries.
Applications for tungsten alloy shielding in PET include: PET syringe shield
Tungsten vial shield
Tungsten FDG transport container
Collimator for gamma camera
Technetium generator
