1. Cesium Irradiators and Alternative Technologies
Technical Discussions
Brian Smith, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Infrastructure and Operations
University of California, San Francisco
11/14/2018

2. What is UC’s interest in this topic?
UC has about half of all of the Cesium irradiators in California at our 10 campuses and 5 medical centers. They are used for blood sterilization and a wide variety of research applications.
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3. Why is UC interested in eliminating Cesium Irradiators, if feasible?
Reduce security risk and liability associated with having large radioactive sources that are easily dispersible and that are potential “dirty bombs.”
Eliminate the large cost of disposing of unused Cesium irradiators ($100-$200K) each.
Eliminate security requirements – extensive security alarm systems; fingerprinting and background checks; drills and training with police; recordkeeping, etc.

4. It is critically important to not negatively impact research with this transition away from Cesium irradiators.
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5. We want this to be a technical decision and not a financial decision.
We have established a UC system-wide Radioactive Source Replacement Working Group (Working Group) …..
With researchers from each of the applicable campuses and medical centers to study the technical issues surrounding replacing Cesium irradiators with X-ray irradiators in research applications.
The goal of the Working Group is to develop a science- based consensus opinion on source equivalencies in research applications and provide these recommendations to UC.
We want this to be a technical decision and not a financial decision.
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6. We recognize that mid-grant cycle funding is not available for this new equipment. Funding through UCOP for the new equipment & 3 years of warranty/service contract has been requested.
11/14/2018

7. UC has partnered with the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) …..
To provide financial support for new X-ray irradiators within the UC system.
We plan to purchase the new x-ray irradiators through UCOP Procurement using UCOP funding and partial reimbursement from NNSA Cesium Irradiator Replacement Program (CIRP), in coordination with the research community over a three-year period of time.
We have planned for up to one year with both the X-ray and Cesium irradiator to do comparison studies before the planned removal of the Cesium irradiators.

8. Our goal today is to facilitate technical discussions in how to transition Cesium irradiator use to X-ray irradiators….
We have speakers available to share their experiences with transitioning their work with both blood and research Cesium irradiators to X-ray irradiators.
We have manufacturers here to discuss with you their machines’ capabilities and services they can offer.
We are here to work with you to determine the best path forward that works for your research.
11/14/2018
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