Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project
Replacing your cesium irradiator with a non-radioisotopic alternative offers your facility an opportunity to decrease costs while permanently reducing security risks.
The Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project (CIRP), offered by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Radiological Security (ORS), launched in 2014 and provides incentives to facilities interested in replacing cesium-137 irradiators with non-radioisotopic X-ray devices. These incentives include the secure removal and disposal of disused irradiators and payment of 50% towards the purchase price of new devices.
Replacement technologies supported through CIRP produce equivalent, or better, results than existing cesium irradiators. In addition to proven performance, replacing your cesium-137 device with an X-ray irradiator can also offer the benefits of:
• Additional research opportunities
• Increased throughput
• Consistent irradiation times
• Partial reimbursement for new X-ray irradiator
• Estimated $500k in removal cost savings
• Liability risk removed
• Reduced licensing requirements for security
• No background checks = increased researcher access
CIRP provides qualified sites, who are interested in making the switch, with a financial incentive towards the purchase price of a new non-radioisotopic device. In addition, they will also remove and dispose the irradiator.
Qualified participants can receive:
- Removal and disposal of cesium irradiators, saving the facility over $500k per irradiator
- 50% of the purchase price of a new X-ray irradiator with payment disbursed upon removal of the disused device and replacement with the new irradiator
- Training, warranty/maintenance agreement, building modifications, spare part costs, or other complementary incentives may be covered on an as-needed basis
- Information on available X-ray irradiators and assistance with stakeholder discussion
The whole process can take approximately 10-12 months
- Fill out the application, which includes getting a quote for an x-ray irradiator
- CIRP reaches out regarding funding approval
- Place your order with the selected company
- X-ray irradiator is delivered and installed
- CIRP releases 50% funds
- Coordinate removal of radioisotopic irradiator with CIRP
- CIRP releases remaining funds
For further information on the Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project and to discuss whether and how the Project could work for your site, please contact ORS at ORSInfo@nnsa.doe.gov.
Comparison and calibration of dose delivered by 137Cs and X-ray irradiators in mice
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Replacement of Cesium Irradiators with Alternative Technologies.
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Comparable human reconstitution following Cesium-137 versus X-ray irradiation preconditioning in immunodeficient NOG mice
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Comparison of gamma and x-ray irradiation for myeloablation and establishment of normal and autoimmune syngeneic bone marrow chimeras
read more ›We performed an analysis of the current line of x-ray research irradiators compared to the CsCl research irradiators against four performance parameters (dose rate, field size, depth-dose, and RBE) and found that the x-ray irradiators provided equivalent performance in terms of dose rate, irradiation field size, and uniformity over the field.
Cesium Chloride Irradiator Replacement Study:
Replacement Costs and Alternative Technologies
