Effects of aging of radioactive fallout on timely decontamination of concrete using low and mild pressure washing.

ABSTRACT: Timely decontamination will reduce the consequences of a radiological contamination event. For this purpose, pressure washing can be rapidly deployed, but its effectiveness will change if the interactions between the surface and radionuclides changes as the contamination "ages" under the influence of time and precipitation. While effects of this aging have been reported for dissolved cesium, they have not been studied for radionuclides present as particulate, e.g., fallout. This work studied the effects of aging on decontamination with low (<280 kPa/40 psi) and mild (14,000 kPa/2000 psi) pressure washing, on concrete contaminated with surrogate fallout consisting of soluble Cs-137, 0.5 μm silica particles, and 2 μm silica particles. The samples were aged up to 59 days (time between contami

SUBMITTER: Hepler K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11315177 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature