[ RadSafe ] Cutting radioactive Iron

[JGinniver at aol.com]

If you can, use a pre-filter on the HEPA filter unit, as the hot cutting  
generates a lot of larger particulate which will 'blind' the HEPA filters  
quickly.  A pre-filter is usually cheaper and easier to change and you  don't have 
issues about testing the HEPA filter following a change.
 
Also if you don't effectively control the fumes you can end up with a lot  of 
problems on your air samplers due to loss of flow from those filters blocking 
 as well.
 
My experience has been that plasma cutting is much quicker than  
oxy-acetalene, but produces much more fume.  I'm assuming (always a rash  thing to do) 
that various cold cutting techniques (water jetting, electric  bandsaws etc.) are 
impractical due to the large size of the items.
 
Regards,
    Julian