A group of UBC engineering science students working with TRIUMF have come together to redesign the radioisotope target station technology required for medical isotope production—successfully creating a new generation of target stations. Under guidance from Jozef Orzechowski and the Applied Technology Group (ATG), the students set to work on their fourth year engineering project with the goal of designing an easy-to-maintain modular device that would minimize the accrued radiation dose to personnel during maintenance of the target stations.
During production of radioisotopes for research and medical applications, protons are sent from the cyclotron through a beam line to a "target station" consisting of a number of components designed to hold target material that is used as a base for radioisotope production. These target stations must be durable in order to withstand the reactions occurring inside them, but must also be simple enough to service when a part malfunctions due to stress or age.
However, current target stations are a complicated assembly of multiple parts that make it cumbersome to service as the faulty part must be disassembled and then reassembled before restarting operation. Furthermore, the use of multiple bolted connections increases the amount of time necessary to service the parts, which also increases the exposure to radiation that service personnel receive during maintenance.
Recognizing the need for a new target station design, Jozef approached TRIUMF graduate student Louis Moskven to design a more reliable and simpler to maintain target station with the primary goal to minimize the accrued personnel radiation dose. This would also serve as part of Louis' fourth year engineering project.
Louis rallied together with his classmates Chrisna Djuardi, Michael Leong and Pankaj Mudgil, to propose a modular design for the target station that would increase reliability and make it easier to service components by making certain parts easier and quicker to remove- thereby reducing the exposure to radiation that personnel normally receive. Other modifications to the materials and connections will help make new target stations more reliable as well, so that servicing is no longer required as often, also reducing overall accrued radiation doses for personnel.
Louis and his team not only modernized the design of the target station, they learned a number of valuable lessons along the way about producing a product for an external client.
"The TRIUMF ATG group were very open and helpful; we were fortunate to have access to their expertise and consultation during the design process and it was a pleasure to work with them throughout," said Louis about the project.
Jozef Orzechowski, TRIUMF's Radioisotope Production Facility Manager, was impressed by the team and enjoyed the collaboration: " We wanted to give the students a chance to advance their skillset, and in the end they were very successful in meeting our needs. TRIUMF is always open to creating new ways for students to become part of the lab and this was a great example of how those partnerships can benefit all of the people involved."
Both Louis and his classmates have since graduated from UBC, and are looking forward to bright careers in their field.
Congratulations Louis, Chrisna, Michael and Pankaj, and thank you for your contributions to TRIUMF!
To see their original scientific poster on the project, click here.
--Ariane Madden, TRIUMF Communications Assistant