[en] A multipurpose irradiation facility is under construction at IPNE, Bucharest, under the IAEA T.C. Project: ROM/8/011. It will be the first industrial facility in Romania. This paper presents the philosophy standing behind the design, the short and long term managing plans. Some dose calculations are added in the view of using the empty spaces in the irradiation room for cultural heritage conservation. An economic study is presented aiming to provide basic estimations for further management strategy. At the start the facility will be a state enterprise. The implications, advantages and disadvantages of this situation are discussed

[en] Multipurpose Irradiation Facility 'IRASM' is the result of the Technical Co-operation Project ROM/08/11 between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Romanian Government that started in 1993. Official objective of the project was 'to establish a demonstration facility'. IFIN-HH, the most important nuclear institute of the country, received the responsibility of setting up the irradiator. The irradiator's economic future is logically related to this responsibility. The real state of the art of radiation processing in Romania prompted us to integrate the promotion of specific means in a broader approach, probably better covered by the word 'acceptance'. To this aim, it was defined as an interactive puzzle of related targets d to involve science, techniques, legislation and market. This paper presents the strategy we followed to implement industrial radiation processing in Romania and evaluates its achievements at the moment of facility commission. (author)

No abstract available

[en] IRASM will be the first Romanian industrial irradiation facility. International Atomic Energy Agency - Vienna supports the project financing the main equipment and a 100 kCi Co-60 demonstration source. The facility will be commissioned in March 2000. Construction and commissioning of this important nuclear objective are difficult tasks. Promotion of radiation processing in Romanian industry is even more difficult. The Project IRASM is a complex contest for IFIN-HH. The management took into consideration all aspects of the project promotion: technical, legal, R and D. The institute identified the need for an appropriate internal structure. For this reason a Radiation Processing Team (GRIT) was nominated and charged to co-ordinate the internal activity and to co-operate with the external partner. Investment Department and Quality Assurance Department strengthened. The operation team was chosen, instructed and engaged in covering the main directions of the management plans: project correlation, construction supervising, commissioning, promotion of the appropriate legal frame, public acceptance and R and D for the association of the industry to the radiation processing technologies. R and D engaged many researchers from different IFIN-HH departments. This paper presents the management of the project and details the steps already undertaken onto each particular direction. (authors)

[en] Sometimes a monument has only local relevance. In such cases, the local community has to assume the responsibility for conservation/restoration. Limited resources and lack of expertise make it a difficult task, especially in emergency cases. The church in Izvoarele, a village in Romania, was constructed in 1935. Internal decoration consisting of wooden pieces, furniture and painted panels was created by people from the village. Some of them had links with the royal family of Romania. Especially for this reason, the church was important for the local community. The inventory consisted of a 6 m × 8 m × 0.8 m iconostasis (great painted wooden wall separating the altar and narthex in Orthodox Christian churches), a balcony, holy chairs and other religious pieces. Most pieces were made of linden wood. Although the decoration is beautiful, the church is not among the special heritage sites under the care and surveillance of the Ministry of Culture.

[en] In Romania, radiation processing takes place at the IRASM Radiation Processing Center, a department of the Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), the most important research and development institute in Romania. IRASM was founded in 2001 with the help of the IAEA, which partially funded the irradiator. It was designed to promote the use of radiation technology in industry and agriculture and the preservation of heritage for public benefit. To be able to fulfil its mission, the irradiation facility is surrounded by analytical laboratories. The work of these laboratories is to measure and certify the beneficial effects of the irradiation. IRASM’s structure is presented. On the premises are a Dosimetry Laboratory which has a mini-irradiator and a microbiological laboratory which validates irradiation sterilization. A laboratory for physical and chemical tests is located in a nearby building. It is able to conduct tests for the identification of irradiated foods, mechanical, structural and colorimetric tests, and others. A biocompatibility laboratory works in close cooperation on some IRASM activities related to medical devices. The activities performed at IRASM are certified by DQS Germany as being compliant with ISO 9001, ISO 13485 and ISO 11137. The laboratories received proof of their competence through licensing and accreditations, both domestic and international. The dosimetry lab is traceable at the National Physical Laboratory, United Kingdom, through Risø High Dose Reference Laboratory, Denmark. Decontamination of cultural heritage objects by irradiation has been considered an activity of national interest since the design of the IRASM facility. The category IV irradiation facility includes a tote box conveyer and allows industrial irradiation at high doses to be delivered in a short time. In the irradiation room of the facility, there is a space next to the conveyor where oversized artefacts may be placed for irradiation. Paper and other smaller artefacts can be irradiated in containers. Since the construction of the facility (in the 1990s), IRASM staff held periodic meetings with conservators/restorers, presenting information on the irradiation method and establishing relationships of trust with museum staff. There were also several cases in which small artefacts were decontaminated with an existing irradiator. The activities mentioned above have brought end users from museums since 2001, the year the IRASM centre was commissioned. The first activity was furniture decontamination for the Cotroceni Museum, Bucharest. The purpose of the treatment was to remove fungi before restoration. The next year, in 2002, the entire wooden inventory (~10 m3) of a parish church in Izvoarele village was treated. Also in 2002, an important project for the National Film Archive took place. It included the treatment of several dozen film reels severely contaminated with fungi. The treatment was preceded by several tests. IRASM activity related to the preservation of cultural heritage has developed continuously and now comprises undertakings ranging from research projects and doctoral theses to international cooperation.

[en] At the end of 1990, the long neglected National Film Archive of Romania began a modernization effort. A new building was built, with a controlled atmosphere and a modern storage system. Before relocation to the new building, the film reels showing fungal traces were cleaned using a special machine. The procedure included brushing and washing with a detergent. The structure of film favours fungal attack. Photographic film is made of a transparent support on which is applied a gelatin emulsion that includes silver atoms (black and white film) or organic dyes (colour film). Gelatin is a hydrophilic protein that remains dry in normal humidity, but can take water from the air if the relative humidity is high. Gelatin emulsion is an excellent source of food for fungi. As a consequence of contamination, part of the gelatin disappears. Instead, fungal metabolic by-products appear. They can chemically interact with the dyes or the support. Of course, the degradation is in direct proportion to the development of fungal attack. In a dry environment, fungi do not develop further and films can be considered stabilized. It was believed that the fungal attack on film reels in the National Film Archive was not active and that the traces of previous attacks would be washed away by the cleaning action. It was thought that there was no need for emergency action. The discovery of several hundred reels where contamination was active and had developed disastrously was a very unpleasant surprise. The signs of a potential disaster were obvious: — The presence of very aggressive contamination on a large number of reels; — The imminent destruction of the films if the biological attack was not stopped immediately; — The impossibility to act by the usual means, because the treatment capacity of the cleaning equipment was far below that needed for the intervention. Radiation decontamination was chosen. In Romania, this was the only available method for the decontamination of large volumes in a short time. The literature did not indicate any antecedent, and there was no information regarding irradiation side effects on films. Given these circumstances, the action was preceded by a programme of exploratory tests.

[en] A multipurpose irradiation facility is under construction at NIPNE, Bucharest, under the IAEA T.C. Project: ROM/8/011. IRASM is a category IV, tote-box type irradiator (wet storage, air irradiation, bed conveyer) with a CO-60 source of maximum 2 million Ci (74 P Bq). A specific feature of IRASM is the high level of radiation danger caused by the large activity of the source. The safe operation of the irradiator is assured by monitoring with radiation detectors, smoke and fire detectors, seismic detectors, etc. Another important specific feature of the irradiator is the processing of light products with high value. Of great importance in the safe irradiation of such products is the computer control assistance of the human decision. Any failure in processing or handling of these products brings important looses. The goal of the present work is to bring the monitoring and safety of irradiation process at the international level. In this purpose, the monitoring and the safety of irradiation process at IRASM were carefully analysed, not only for nuclear safety and prevention of equipment damage, but also for irradiated product safety. The results of the first stage of this work, are the organization, the description and the requirements for the database necessary in administrating the IRASM. This data base consists in archives of legal and economic documents and is continuously maintained by the accumulation of experience of this relatively new application of radiations in our country. The paper describes the data base administration, actualisation and protection. Also, the possibilities to analyse the efficiency in exploitation are discussed. The data base administration is facilitated by the presence of the process computer that supplies a great part of necessary information (process parameters, main units' status, failures, etc.). (authors)

[en] The Multipurpose Irradiation Facility (IRASM) is an industrial irradiator with a Co-60 source of 2 MCi, the implying radiological risk requiring a Safety System (SS) carefully realized, from the design stage to the construction stage. Also, SS must contain provisions for the decommissioning stage. The ultimate goals of SS are the control of the radioactive sources and the radiation protection of operators and population in any reasonable emergency situations. For these purposes, SS is provided with physical and methodological components. The practice showed that the efficiency of SS is achieved starting from the logic of the facility operation transposed/verified in the physical construction and work procedures. In our work, we conceived an Operational Safety Program based on the analytical tree technique. The value of this Program consists in exhaustive identification of the physical and operational parameters influencing the safety and the radiation protection of IRASM. Each of them is consequently detailed in a 'tree' form. The resultant tree structure (up to 9 levels of branches) could appear very complicated, but the logic of branching makes it easy to follow. Also, it was established the IRASM operation chart and, on this basis, the activities needing methodological specifications were identified: processing ('Batch irradiation') and dosimetric surveillance ('Radiation detectors checking and replacement', 'Area dosimetry', 'Personnel dosimetry'). All of these were incorporated in the personnel training program, by working out the Quality Assurance Book and the Final Safety Report. (authors)

[en] Promotional activities were developed for applications of the Romanian Multipurpose Irradiation Facility in various fields. Among these, the conservation of cultural heritage by irradiation is one of the targets taken into consideration from the design stage. A dedicated laboratory is part of the facility. The preparations for cultural heritage conservation already started. They included acquiring of theoretical and practical experience in this field and many contacts were done with museum and archive specialists in restoration and conservation. Being a quasi new borderline between the humanistic and technical areas, the conservation of cultural heritage needs pluri-disciplinary synthesis. Our work, mainly bibliographical, covers this complex picture focusing on conservation from different points of view: sources of degradation, technical conservation alternatives with pros and contras, cost/benefit and other aspects that must be taken into account when a conservation procedure is chosen. The paper aim is to assemble the abilities of those implicated in execution and decision. - The conservator perspective is the most important one. He has the privilege and responsibility in choosing the disinfestation procedure. His perspective is based on the knowledge of the material structure, of the specific way of material deterioration and of the biology of the aggressors. - The conservation procedures must have in view the protection of the persons that use the treated objects (museum custodian, archivist, archive researcher, visitor), i.e., the need for an ecologically friendly technology to ensure the protection of human beings and environment. This trend imposed the abandonment of fumigation with toxic vapours (persisting in treated items and slowly being released in museum and archives) giving credits to new clean methods, like irradiation. - The perspective of the operator that applies the conservation procedure is governed by technical and financial elements. Having in mind the above landmarks, the known chemical and non-chemical treatment processes for preservation of cultural heritage are reviewed. The irradiation technologies are discussed in this frame. There are two directions of irradiation use: extermination of biological aggressors and the consolidation of degraded structures. For the irradiation disinfestation, the scientific approach is described. Limit absorbed doses with no damaging effects for various kinds of materials (wood, paper, parchment, leather, paint supports, paint colours, silk and other fabrics, mummies, synthetic polymers, cellulose) are mentioned. These doses are compared with the lethal doses for various aggressors: insects, moulds, fungi, actinomycetes, bacteria. The paper, as a whole, is at the same time a synthesis useful for museum and archive conservationists as well as a promotional booklet for IRASM. (author)