Radioactive materials laboratory receives clean rooms with lead shielding

The Stuttgart University Hospital has consolidated its expertise in the treatment of cancer patients in the new building of the Stuttgart Cancer Center – Eva Mayr Stihl Tumor Center. In addition to an oncological day clinic, the lung cancer center, and the Department of Nuclear Medicine and parts of radiation therapy, the new building in downtown Stuttgart also houses a state-of-the-art radioisotope laboratory with clean rooms of classes C and D. Responsible for the planning of the clean rooms, including complete ventilation technology, qualification measurements, GMP consulting, and cleanroom furniture, is CAT Clean Air Technology GmbH (CAT Group) from Stuttgart.

The laboratory will enable patient-specific preparation of active substances directly on site in the future. To this end, several lead-lined hot cells are available in the clean rooms, where radiopharmaceuticals can be produced as needed. Lead is also partially incorporated into the walls of the clean rooms to prevent radioactivity from escaping to the outside. Accordingly, the requirements for the ventilation technology throughout the entire laboratory area are quite complex. The ventilation system must ensure that potentially contaminated exhaust air is completely cleaned through appropriate filtration. Additionally, the lead lining of the cleanroom walls significantly increased the complexity of the planning in advance. "The new radioisotope laboratory is equipped with highly specialized technology within its compact space. The different trades worked meticulously hand-in-hand during the implementation phase to make this demanding project a success," summarizes CAT project manager Jan Haubrich the challenges.

The Stuttgart University Hospital is one of the largest and most efficient hospitals in Germany. It treats around 90,000 inpatients annually and more than 600,000 outpatients.