Decontamination by cleaning with fluorocarbon surfactant solutions

摘要

In the nuclear industry, facilities and their components inevitably become contaminated with radioactive materials. This report documents the application of a novel particle-removal process developed by Entropic Systems, Inc. (ESI), to decontaminate critical instruments and parts that are contaminated with small radioactive particles that adhere to equipment surfaces. The tests were performed as a cooperative effort between ESI and the Chemical Technology Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ESI developed a new, environmentally compatible process to remove small particles from solid surfaces that is more effective than spraying or sonicating with CFC-113. This process uses inert perfluorinated liquids as working media; the liquids have zero ozone-depleting potential, are nontoxic and nonflammnable, and are generally recognized as nonhazardous materials. In the ESI process, parts to be cleaned are first sprayed or sonicated with a dilute solution of a high-molecular-weight fluorocarbon surfactant in an inert perfluorinated liquid to effect particle removal. The parts are then rinsed with the perfluorinated liquid to remove the fluorocarbon surfactant applied in the first step, and the residual rinse liquid is then evaporated from the parts into an air or nitrogen stream from which it is recovered. Nuclear contamination is inherently a surface phenomenon. The presence of radioactive particles is responsible for all ''smearable'' contamination and, if the radioactive particles are small enough, for some of the fixed contamination. Because radioactivity does not influence the physical chemistry of particle adhesion, the ESI process should be just as effective in removing radioactive particles as it is in removing nonradioactive particles.