PVC conduit inside a MRI room
- Thread starter Lanny D
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Yes and no. You should have a set of drawings and specs from the manufacturer (maybe incorporated into the AE documents) that will spell out what you need to use.
Roger
- Location
- Placerville, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Retired PV System Designer
Welcome to the Forum, Lanny!
It is not an area where invasive procedures are done (although there may be contrast material IV in conjunction with the MRI), so the answer may well vary from AHJ to AHJ.
The hospital may also have specifications that are stricter than the NEC.
There may possibly be some issues where the electrostatic shielding of a metal raceway may be important too. (Just speculation.)
No, Patient Care Areas do not have to be areas where invasive procedures take place, see the definitions of Patient Care Area in 517.
Roger
mpoulton
Senior Member
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ, USA
MRI rooms usually require very careful shielding, not for the strong magnetic field, but due to the powerful radio frequency radiation (used to cause the "resonance" part of Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Any wires in the area act like antennas and pick up a lot of RF energy. They also radiate RF noise which can interfere with the MRI. If your wiring is far enough from the machine PVC conduit may be allowed, but otherwise a fully enclosed metallic raceway is probably needed. MRI rooms are always fully engineered and some engineer should be responsible for signing off on the materials and methods used.
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