Meeting of iia Gamma Working Group
The iia held the 4th meeting of its Gamma Working Group (GWG) on 30th November 2021. Thank you to those individuals from the gamma irradiation community that contributed to this meeting and enabled the group to progress its various initiatives.
SANDIA National Laboratories (SNL) updated the group on their project that aims to enhance physical security at gamma irradiators. The GWG has been contributing to this project since its inception by providing industry feedback to SNL to ensure that any security measures are appropriate and acceptable to operators of gamma irradiators.
Updates were also provided on the trials of the joint iia/WINS ‘Methodology for Assessing the Effectiveness of Security at Arrangements at Gamma Irradiation Facilities’. We were pleased to announce that one US company will contribute by performing a self-assessment and one European company will participate in a third party assessment using the methodology. Arrangements for these trials are progressing well and it is anticipated that they will enable the methodology to be updated using the experience that is gained.
FRAMATOME, a member of iia, gave a presentation to GWG about their offering to the gamma irradiation industry. They have recently performed a comprehensive upgrade to a gamma irradiator that included the introduction of walking beam conveyor technology. Further information about the technology and the benefits that it can offer will be released next year following further assessment.
New GWG initiatives for 2022 were introduced and these will be scoped out and discussed further at the next meeting. If you are interested in contributing to the work of GWG then please contact Martin Comben, iia General Manager of Gamma at mcomben@iiaglobal.com