[ RadSafe ] Contamination Monitor and Static Electricity

[Michael McCarty]

Kyle, et alii

Yes, that does happen.  My boss temporarily lost his nylon windbreaker
after we were in the Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant containment
while the plant was at power.  The nice thing (sometimes) about noble
gasses is that they don't bond chemically to items such as clothing--
hence the temporary nature of the contamination.

BTW, BRP has gone to greenfields condition following decommisioning
(except for the dry cask storage of fuel on the ISFISI Pad).  When it
was running it wasn't that large of a reactor/plant.  As I recall the
plant produced about 63 MWe.  It was common to enter the containment at
power provided the number of occupants didn't exceed twice the capacity
of the emergency escape airlock.  They figured that they would have time
to cycle the airlock twice in an emergency before filling the
containment with live steam.

I'm probably showing my age, but someone has to make the HP newbies
look young. =)

Mike

>>> <JGinniver at aol.com> 09/08/06 1:59 PM >>>

I understand  that some facilities also have problems with fission 
product Noble gases, as  these can also be attracted by static charges
on 
clothing.  However this  can also be measured when the individual is
checked 
following an alarm in the  Personnel Monitor.

>>> "Redmond, Randy (RXQ)" <redmondrr at y12.doe.gov> 09/08/06 12:15 PM
>>>
Kyle,

This is a pretty common problem and is due to radon progeny. 
Polyester
pants and hardhats are particularly bad.  Spraying with static guard
prior to entry helps.