Monitoring of critical parameters of radiation sterilization process at an industrial electron accelerator

The use of ionizing radiation is a safe and effective method for sterilizing medical devices, pharmaceuticals and food products. In accordance with the requirements of international standards, a necessary condition of the process QA is to maintain its critical parameters within the specified limits. Primarily, such parameters are the electron energy and absorbed dose. The value of the latter must be controlled in each unit of the processed product. Traditionally, the disposable chemical dosimeters are used in an off-line mode for these purposes. For on-line monitoring of beam energy and absorbed dose, a method based on measurement of distribution of the charge induced by irradiation in an extended stack monitor positioned behind an irradiated object was developed and implemented. In the report, a brief overview of a control system designed on the basis of an EPICS package for continuous monitoring of the processing parameters at a LU-10 industrial electron linac of NSC KIPT with beam energy of 810 MeV is presented. The operation principle of the system is described, as well as the procedure and results of calibration of electron beam energy and absorbed dose measuring channels.