Fw: tritium removable contamination

["William G. Nabor" <wgnabor@uci.edu>]

How desperate are you for dissolvable wipes and how much water can your
cocktail tolerate?  There are new peanuts on the market made from corn
starch.  They dissolve in water.  I just tried one in our "nonhazardous"
cocktail.  It did not dissolve.  However another one, about 3/4 the volume
of a 20 ml vial, dissolved completely when first shaken with 3 ml of water.
Ten ml of our cocktail gelled with this much water, which kills the idea for
us, but you may prefer this problem or your cocktail may tolerate this much
water.  You will then have to test for quenching, of course.  The corn
starch peanuts will not be very good for wet surfaces, though.

I'm looking for a methodology for determining removable tritium
contamination on surfaces.  I used to use packing peanuts, which
dissolved in liquid scintillation cocktail, but the new, nonhazardous
cocktails won't dissolve this.

I'd be interested in learning how others do this.

The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.

Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com


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William G. Nabor
University of California, Irvine
EH&S Office
Irvine, CA,  92697-2725
WGNABOR@UCI.EDU
mailto:wgnabor@uci.edu
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