Real-Time Identification and Characterization of Asbestos and Concrete Materials with Radioactive Contamination

Technical Report · Thu Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/833002· OSTI ID:833002

Xu, George; Zhang, Xi-Cheng

Concrete and asbestos-containing materials were widely used in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) building construction in the 1940s and 1950s. Over the years, many of these porous building materials have been contaminated with radioactive sources, on and below the surface. This intractable radioactive-and-hazardous-asbestos mixed-waste stream has created a tremendous challenge to DOE decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) project managers. The current practice to identify asbestos and to characterize radioactive contamination depth profiles in based solely on bore sampling, which is inefficient, costly, and unsafe. A three-year research project was started 1998 at Rensselaer with the following ultimate goals: (1) development of novel non-destructive methods for identifying the hazardous asbestos in real-time and in-situ, and (2) development of new algorithms and apparatus for characterizing the radioactive contamination depth profile in real-time and in-situ.

• Research Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: FG07-98ER62706
• OSTI ID: 833002
• Report Number(s): EMSP-65004--2000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ALGORITHMS
ASBESTOS
BUILDING MATERIALS
CONCRETES
CONSTRUCTION
CONTAMINATION
DECOMMISSIONING
DECONTAMINATION
SAMPLING