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Re: Decommissioning problem
Could be cadmium - bad joo joo; no landfill.
The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com
Greg Krause wrote:
> I inherited the clean up of an old subcritical reactor. The fuel and PuBe sources are gone (thank you Sherry Jones and the Y-12 people), but:
>
> the fuel and other U itmes were stored with Aluminum reactor components in a small sealed room for many years. All of the Aluminum items now appear to be contaminated when I perform wipe tests on them using liquid scintillation. Other items in the room: cardboard, wood, steel don't appear to be contaminated. Is this consistent with deposition of radon daughter products? (leaded glass is also contaminated while the metal frame is not.) Contamination levels appear to be around 300 - 1000 dpm/100 cm2.
>
> The contamination appears to wipe off easily with detergent, so I have a choice of contaminated aluminum or contaminated paper towels. Assuming that the contamination is radon daughters, how to dispose of the bags of towels?
>
> Final question: although I got rid of the PuBe sources, I still have the storage container. Its a large aluminum can filled with parafin, but would anyone know what the thin sheet of soft, gray metal is that's apparently used as the thermal neutron absorber? I need to know, because unless someone out there wants it, I intend to send it to the landfill. The only info I have on the container is that a tag on the outside reads: Universal Nuclear, New York, NY
>
> Greg Krause, P.E.
> Director, Radiation & Chemical Safety
> University of North Dakota
> 701-777-3341
> greg_krause@operations.und.nodak.edu
>
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information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html