UNDERWATER COATINGS FOR CONTAMINATION CONTROL
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) deactivated several aging nuclear fuel storage basins. Planners for this effort were greatly concerned that radioactive contamination present on the basin walls could become airborne as the sides of the basins became exposed during deactivation and allowed to dry after water removal. One way to control this airborne contamination was to fix the contamination in place while the pool walls were still submerged. There are many underwater coatings available on the market for marine, naval and other applications. A series of tests were run to determine whether the candidate underwater fixatives were easily applied and adhered well to the substrates (pool wall materials) found in INL fuel pools. Lab-scale experiments were conducted by applying fourteen different commercial underwater coatings to four substrate materials representative of the storage basin construction materials, and evaluating their performance. The coupons included bare concrete, epoxy painted concrete, epoxy painted carbon steel, and stainless steel. The evaluation criteria included ease of application, adherence to the four surfaces of interest, no change on water clarity or chemistry, non-hazardous in final applied form and be proven in underwater applications. A proprietary two-part, underwater epoxy owned by S. G. Pinney and Associates was selected from the underwater coatings tested for application to all four pools. Divers scrubbed loose contamination off the basin walls and floors using a ship hull scrubber and vacuumed up the sludge. The divers then applied the coating using a special powered roller with two separate heated hoses that allowed the epoxy to mix at the roller surface was used to eliminate pot time concerns. The walls were successfully coated and water was removed from the pools with no detectable airborne contamination releases.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - EM
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-99ID-13727
- OSTI ID:
- 911132
- Report Number(s):
- INEEL/CON-04-02568; TRN: US0704410
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ANS DD&R Topical,Denver, CO,08/07/2005,08/11/2005
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
AGING
CARBON STEELS
CHEMISTRY
COATINGS
CONSTRUCTION
CONTAMINATION
DEACTIVATION
FUEL STORAGE POOLS
MARKET
NUCLEAR FUELS
PERFORMANCE
SCRUBBERS
STAINLESS STEELS
STORAGE
SUBSTRATES
WATER
WATER REMOVAL
basin walls
contamination
deactivated fuel storage basins
underwater coatings