MONITORING AND DECONTAMINATION TECHNIQUES FOR PLUTONIUM FALLOUT ON LARGE- AREA SURFACES

Technical Report · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1957

OSTI ID:4201887

Pinson, E A; Merian, R F; Boecker, B B; Dick, J L

Decontamination methods tested on hard surfaces include vacuuming, high- pressure hosing with water, highpressure hosing with water followed by scrubbing, highpressure hosing with water detergent, high-pressure hosing with water detergent followed by scrubbing, sandblasting, and steam cleaning. Hard-surface areas include concrete, asphalt, plate steel, aluminum, galvanized roofing, tar- paper roofing, unpainted wood, painted wood, glass, brick, stucco. wood shingles. and asbestos shingles. Flats of grass were also exposed. The effectiveness of decontamination methods for large land areas was determined by air sampling during resuspension of the contaminant before and after the decontamination operation and by soil sampling. Decontamination methods tested on land areas included plowing, disking, plowing. soaking with fire foam, sprinkling with water, sprinkling with a waterAlconox solution, flooding with water, and wetting with aqueous ferric chloride solution. Present data availably indicate that surface monitor readings decrease with time after the shot. Similarly, air concentration decreased rapidly after cloud passage and varied thereafter according to existing weather conditions; i.e.. wind and rain. The most effective means of hard-surface decontamination are listed in order of efficiency as follows: sandblasting, water-detergent scrubbing, water-detergent hosing, water hosing, water scrubbing, steam. leaning. and vacuuming. Effectiveness varied from 98.3 to 66.4%. Operationally, the simplest method for pad decontamination appears to be water-detergent hosing. The most effective means of large land-surface decontimination are listed in order of efficiency as follows: plowing, oiling and scraping, scraping, leaching with O.3 in. of water and scraping. oiling. leaching with 1 in. of water. leaching with 0.3in. ofa water-FeCl/sub 3/ solution. disking, and leaching with 0.3 in. of a water-Alconox solution. Efficiencies varied from 98.3 to 3.0%. The contaminated vehicles and test equipment were readily decontaminited below AEC tolerance level. (auth)

• Research Organization: Air Force Special Weapons Center, Kirtland AFB, N. Mex.
• NSA Number: NSA-14-003380
• OSTI ID: 4201887
• Report Number(s): ITR-1512(Del.)
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

AIR
BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
DECONTAMINATION
EFFICIENCY
FALLOUT
MONITORING
PERFORMANCE
PLUTONIUM
SAFETY
SAMPLING
SOILS
SURFACES