Diamond Shaving of Contaminated Concrete Surfaces
- Bluegrass Concrete Cutting Inc., 107 Mildred Street PO Box 427, Greenville, Alabama 36037 (United States)
Decommissioning and decontamination of existing facilities presents technological challenges. One major challenge is the removal of surface contamination from concrete floors and walls while eliminating the spread of contamination and volumetric reduction of the waste stream. Numerous methods have been tried with a varying degree of success. Recent technology has made this goal achievable and has been used successfully. This new technology is the Diamond Floor Shaver and Diamond Wall shaver. The Diamond Floor Shaver is a self-propelled, walk behind machine that literally shaves the contaminated concrete surface to specified depths. This is accomplished by using a patented system of 100 dry cutting diamond blades with offset diamond segments that interlock to provide complete shaving of the concrete surface. Grooves are eliminated which allows for a direct frisk reading to analyze results. When attached to an appropriate size vacuum, the dust produced is 100% contained. Dust is collected in drums ready for disposition and disposal. The waste produced in shaving 7,500 square feet at 1/8 inch thickness would fill a single 55 gallon drum. Production is dependent on depth of shaving but averages 100 square feet per hour. The wall shaver uses the same patented diamond drum and blades but is hydraulically driven and is deployed using a robotic arm allowing its operation to be to totally remote. It can reach ceilings as high as 20 feet. Numerous small projects were successfully completed using this technology. Large scale deployment came in 2003. Bluegrass, in conjunction with Bartlett Services, deployed this technology to support decontamination activities for closing of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons site. Up to six floor shavers and one wall shaver were deployed in buildings B371 and B374. These buildings had up to one half-inch, fixed plutonium and beryllium contamination. Hundred-thousands of square feet of floors and walls were shaved successfully to depths of up to one half inch. Decontamination efforts were so successful the balance of the buildings could be demolished using conventional methods. The shavers helped keep the project on schedule while the vacuum system eliminated the potential for contaminants becoming airborne.
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, Illinois 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21144239
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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