DECONTAMINATION OF PLUTONIUM-CONTAMINATED GLOVEBOXES

摘要

In connection with the Argonne National Laboratory efforts to reduce potential hazards in the event a plutonium use facility is hit by a tornado, a decontamination experiment was carried out to establish the lowest practicable limits of loose contamination in an open rating glovebox, and to determine the relative merits of solvent wiping and vacuum cleaning as methods of decontamination. The results showed that a single wiping of the heavily contaminated test glovebox with Colon Hel-Cat, Myco Tiara, or Pennwalt 2187 solvent for a short period of time removes >95% of the loose contamination originally present, with a resultant contamination level of 106-107 dpm/lOO cm2. Subsequent wiping s had little effect on removing the remaining (<5%) contamination.