Irradiation protocol for cultural heritage conservation treatment

• Autor(a) principal: NAGAI, MARIA L.E.
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: SANTOS, PAULO de S., VASQUEZ, PABLO A., INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR ATLANTIC CONFERENCE
• Tipo de documento: Artigo de conferência
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional do IPEN
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.ipen.br/handle/123456789/30648
• topic: cobalt 60; cultural objects; decontamination; fungi; historical aspects; irradiation; preservation; recommendations

Ionizing radiation supplied by cobalt-60 is an excellent alternative tool to the traditional process of decontamination of cultural and historical materials, mainly because of its biocidal action. Analyzing the occurrence of requests for treatment materials from cultural institutions with ionizing radiation for fungal decontamination in the Multipurpose Gamma Irradiation Facility of the Nuclear and Energy Research Institute - CTR/IPEN, there was a need to establish a protocol for the care of institutions and individuals carrying cultural and historical collections. The objective of the present study was the establishment of an efficient and reproducible model of an irradiation protocol for the treatment of cultural heritage materials in industrial irradiators. One of the main conditions of effective decontamination, resulting in the least possible deterioration of the materials due to the treatment, is the homogeneity of the mass of the materials to be treated. In this sense, it is important to establish and follow a protocol for the effective processing of ionizing radiation and to respect the ethical principles of conservation and restoration activities. The proposed protocol can also be applied to other types of files and collections. The decision to treat ionizing radiation should be conducted by professionals of conservation of cultural goods in agr??ment with professionals of the area of application of ionizing radiation. The objective of the protocol is to be a practical guide, from the detection of the problem to the final cleaning, so that conservatives and professionals of the irradiation can act in a collaborative and objective way to reach the objective of the treatment.