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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Basic Research in Plasma Medicine - A Throughput Approach from Liquids to Cells
Published on: November 17, 2017
Radiation protection of PFMA-1, a plasma focus for medical applications
A Fabbri1, M Frignani, S Mannucci
1Laboratorio di Ingegneria Nucleare di Montecuccolino, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, via dei Colli 16, I-40136 Bologna, Italy.
Abstract:
A plasma focus is being developed for breeding short-lived radionuclides. The different radiation protection issues and concerns posed by the machine once in operation are analysed and discussed. Activation is shown to be totally negligible and likewise neutron emission is found to pose no concern at all. The only source of radiation risk is found to rest in the radionuclides produced, 18F and 15 O, generating a peak exposure of 1.114 Sv y(-1) at the distance of closest approach of 2.5 m. Shielding to protect against this hazard is calculated to be 5 cm Pb or 54 cm concrete for the operation area and 5.5 cm Pb for the transportation flask.
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