Decontamination of the 233-S Building Loadout Hood

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:5217122

Shoemaker, D C; Graves, A W

This paper summarizes the engineering and field work conducted to decontaminate the 233-S Building Loadout Hood, a plutonium nitrate loadout facility highly contaminated with transuranics. The scope of work supporting the Loadout Hood decontamination effort included a detailed physical and radiological characterization, decontamination/fixation to reduce surface contamination to levels which would allow structural dismantling to be conducted with minimum airborne contamination, and dismantling to remove contaminated components. Decontamination operations were performed in a deliberate, systematic manner to generate data for evaluating the technology and methods used. Pre-dismantling decontamination and fixation efforts were designed to clean Loadout Hood internal surfaces in-place to nondetectable surface contamination levels as an alternative to dismantling in a loose contamination environment. Results of this approach as well as the effectiveness of a HEPA filtered vacuum cleaner, and several different decontamination chemicals and fixatives are evaluated. Recommendations based on lessons learned are made for future decontamination and decommissioning operations.

• Research Organization: Rockwell International Corp., Richland, WA (USA). Rockwell Hanford Operations
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-77RL01030
• OSTI ID: 5217122
• Report Number(s): RHO-SA-187; CONF-800753-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

054000 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Health & Safety
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
400702* -- Radiochemistry & Nuclear Chemistry-- Properties of Radioactive Materials
42 ENGINEERING
420203 -- Engineering-- Handling Equipment & Procedures
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
BUILDINGS
CLEANING
DECONTAMINATION
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
HOT LABS
NITRATES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLUTONIUM COMPOUNDS
PLUTONIUM NITRATES
RECOMMENDATIONS
SURFACE CLEANING
SURFACE FINISHING
TRANSURANIUM COMPOUNDS