Field Expedients for Decontaminating Water Containing Nuclear Bomb Debris

摘要

A description is given of work which yielded the following results: (a) the solubility of radioactive debris in water increases with a decrease in pH and an increase in temperature, but the change is not significant in the range of pH and temperature variations of normal drinking water supplies; (b) the solubility of radioactive debris in water is not markedly affected by contact time (increases in solubility with time are offset by decreases in contamination resulting from radioactive decay); (c) the solubility of radioactive debris in water may be significant enough to require demineralization to produce water safe for drinking; (d) radioactive debris from surface detonations can be colloidal and remain in suspension in water for extended periods of time and be readily transported to downstream water sources; (e) field expedient water purification methods such as filtration through clay, paper, cellulose pads, and molded filter candles; and batch coagulation and filtration can effectively accomplish radioactivity removals of about 75 percent or more. Higher removals of activity approaching 100 percent are obtainable by ion exchange demineralization following filtration; (f) the standard military IM-141/PDR-27J Radiacmeter and the Civil Defense CDV-700 meter can be used satisfactorily in the field to determine the radioactivity content of water at levels higher than 1,000,000 picocuries per liter. (Author)