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US 7,093,476 B2Granted
Method for fabricating thin californium-containing radioactive source wires
AssigneeUT-Battelle, LLC
InventorsIan G Gross, Larry A Pierce
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for reducing the cross-sectional diameter of a radioactive californium-containing cermet wire while simultaneously improving the wire diameter to a more nearly circular cross section. A collet fixture is used to reduce the wire diameter by controlled pressurization pulses while simultaneously improving the wire cross-sectional diameter. The method is especially suitable for use in hot cells for the production of optimized cermet brachytherapy sources that contain large amounts of radioactive californium-252.
Claims6
A method of shaping a californium-252 cermet wire comprising the steps of:
- a. Providing a cermet wire comprising at least 1% californium-252;
- b. positioning at least a portion of said cermet wire in a pneumatically operated collet fixture;
- c. applying a controlled pressurization pulse to the circumference of the cermet wire using said collet fixture;
- d. rotating said cermet wire a fraction of a turn and advancing said cermet wire a short distance through said collet fixture following said controlled pressurization pulse;
- and
- e. repeating steps c and d until the wire diameter has been reduced over the length of said cermet wire to a diameter of no more than 0.0225 inch.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.