EQUIPMENT DECONTAMINATION BY ABRASIVE BLASTING IN THE PROCESSING REFABRICATION EXPERIMENT

摘要

The purpose of this work was to investigate abrasive blasting as a method for decontamination of radioactive Process Refabrication Experiment (PRE) in-cell equipment. Experiments were carried out, initially with non-radioactive materials, and then with low-level radioactive materials to determine the proper operating conditions and effectiveness of abrasive blasting. It was concluded that abrasive blasting with cut steel wire should be used in PRE for decontamination of recoverable non-precision materials and equipment, or for pre-disposal partial decontamination of non-recoverable items. Blasting with cut wire resulted in less dust production than blasting with mineral abrasives.