Knowledge Hub · Saxsons Foot-Operated Waste Bin
The waste bin sits in the hot lab across the full shift and is approached from any angle. Pb shielding on every face including the lid bounds the operator-facing dose-rate at any standing position; the foot-pedal lid breaks the hand-to-surface contamination path. This page is the design rationale.
Why this matters
All-side + lid shielding
Unlike a bench shield where the operator stands in a known position, the waste bin is approached from any angle in the hot lab — the operator drops waste from the dispense bench side, the cleaning staff lifts the polybag from another side. Lead shielding on the body, the base AND the lid means the operator-facing dose-rate is bounded regardless of standing position. The AERB envelope holds across the shift no matter where the staff member is in the room.
Source: AERB Safety Code for Nuclear Medicine Facility; ICRP Publication 103.
Foot-pedal hands-free deposit
The hand that just dispensed a radiopharmaceutical may carry trace contamination — droplet residue, gloved-finger contact at the syringe neck. A foot-pedal lid means the operator does not touch the lid surface during waste deposit. The hand-to-surface contamination path is broken; the daily lid-decontamination wipe-down covers any incidental aerosol contribution. Compared to a hand-operated lid or a lift-off cap, foot-pedal cuts a measurable share of cumulative hand-contamination events across the shift.
Source: AAPM Report 88; IAEA Operational Guidance on Hospital Radiopharmacy.
Pb tier per dispense class
Solid waste from the dispense workflow carries residual radiopharmaceutical activity on swabs, syringe outers, gloves and dispensing paper. Tc-99m drops to negligible inside the bin within 72 h; F-18 inside 18 h. Lu-177 theranostic waste needs ~ 67 days. The Pb tier choice is what keeps the bench-side dose-rate inside envelope across the half-life window before the bin is emptied to the decay drum.
Source: NIST XCOM cross-section database; NCRP Report 49; AERB framework.
Wheel-mounted high-shielding tier
A 12 mm Pb waste bin weighs significantly more than a 3 mm bin — the shielding mass scales with the wall thickness. Manual lift-carry of the high-shielding tier risks operator wrist / back injury and breaks the radiation-safety SOP for personal-handling distance from contaminated waste. The wheel-mounted variant lets the staff push the bin to the decay-store without lifting; the lockable castors keep it in place during use.
Source: IAEA SRS 38; manual-handling occupational-safety framework.
Decay-store routing
After the shift, the lifted polybag from the waste bin transfers to the Saxsons decay drum (matched Pb tier) for the half-life-based hold (10 half-lives = ~ 0.1 % residual) before the final transfer to the biomedical-waste chain under the CPCB Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules. The waste-bin → decay-drum → biomedical-waste handoff is the documented chain that the AERB licence-renewal audit follows.
Source: CPCB Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules (India); AERB framework.
Solid-waste collection, hold and biomedical-waste handoff framework.
Indian regulatory framework — solid-waste collection, hold, decay and final disposal chain.
CPCB framework for biomedical waste that the radioactive-waste chain inherits at the post-decay step.
IAEA guidance for radiation-safety standards in nuclear medicine.
AAPM radiopharmacy QC framework including waste-collection workflow.