GENERAL RADIOISOTOPE SERVICE

The General Radioisotope Service of the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea is an installation authorized by the Nuclear Safety Council for the handling of non-encapsulated radioactive sources for research and teaching purposes and is registered as an IR/BI-87/88 (IRA-1535) Third Category Radioactive Installation. The General Radioisotope Service is accredited by the Basque Government / Eusko Jaurlaritza and has the administrative authorization required for operation.

The main aim of the Service is to ensure that all teaching and research activities that may entail the use of ionizing radiation be carried out with the utmost guarantees in terms of safety and protection, and always within the legal scope established.

The structure of the GENERAL RADIOISOTOPE SERVICE comprises the following units, which are attached to each other:

• The Isotopic Analysis Laboratory, which provides the Service with the capacity to handle and analyse non-encapsulated radiation with radioactive environmental contamination.
• The Radioactivity Meter Room, which complements the above-mentioned unit and via which the capacity has been created to carry out radiation metrology and the characterization of radioactive sources in general.
• Warehouse for radioactive residues of non-encapsulated sources.

This General Service attempts to meet the ample demand both on the part of research groups from the different departments of the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea, technology centres from the Basque Autonomous Community and public and private companies, who have expressed the need to accurately find out the concentrations of radioisotopes in biological clinical and research samples.

The installation is authorised to handle the following non-encapsulated radioisotopes, the maximum activities of which that may be stored at the installation are:

MBq= Megabecquerel.
mCi= millicurie.