Re: CO-2 decon

[D Andrews <n1esk2@sover.net>]

Radsafers:

My apologies for commenting on an old thread, but we just completed a
refueling outage, and the dog ate my homework . . . 

Vermont Yankee NPC purchased a combination CO-2 & liquid decon booth quite a
few years back. The unit was purchased from a company started by a former
rad tech, BTW. We have the option of operating from outside the enclosure
using a glove bag type arrangement, or entering the enclosure. The interior
has about 250ft2 of space, so you can "blast quite a lot per entry. We make
our own CO-2 pellets from an onsite CO-2 supply.

Our experiences have been very positive. Time is an excellent teacher, and
we've pretty much figured out what to spray, what to shoot, and what to
trash. Very few items are ineligible for the unit. We even decon down some
items knowing they can't be free released, in order to lower the contam
levels a few magnitudes.

Porous items don't respond well, and some special alloys will leach.
Depending on the item in question, we will occasionally hold an item aside
for a few days or weeks to check for leaching.

Hope this helps. BTW, we are a STRONG union plant (IBEW Local 300), and the
union workers love it! Sorry LaSalle ;-) Dose is dose, and blasting beats
scrubing.   

David Andrews, RRPT
Vermont Yankee NPC
Vernon, VT 05354-0193
n1esk2@sover.net