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Content archived on 2022-12-23

Evaluation and development of decontamination srategies for a range of environmental situations (e.g. : urban, rural, forests)

Objective

The decontamination of soils, surfaces and equipment, the avoidance of re-contamination, and the use of contaminated materials, are important considerations for post-accident management. Many data on, and techniques for, decontamination have been obtained through research programmes and experience within the nuclear industry. Most of the information, however, has been obtained from small scale experiments and decontamination operations, eg, in laboratories, on small outdoor areas; how appropriate this experience is to large scale decontamination operations which may be necessary following a large nuclear accident remains an open question.

This collaborative project provides a unique opportunity to obtain data on the costs and efficacy of various decontamination techniques implemented on a practical scale. Decontamination experience would be exchanged, existing techniques would be compared and tested and new or improved approaches identified. Analyses of costs and efficacy should be comprehensive and include consideration of occupational exposures to decontamination workers, the environmental impact from the complete operation (eg, including subsequent waste disposal, etc). The results of the project should be integrated with previous studies to provide a comprehensive data base applicable to large scale decontamination; this would form a sound basis for the development of well conceived, practical strategies and policies for decontamination in the event of a future accident.

Decontamination strategies

The methods of decontamination already tested should be applied on a larger scale in order to qualify them for operational use and to obtain more pertinent data on their efficacy and costs. These methods include: decontamination of buildings and urban surfaces, testing of soil removal methods, decontamination of machines, processing of timber and forest industry by-products, treatments of relatively large amounts of organic wastes, assessing the efficiency of deep ploughing, decontamination of milk through processing.

Decontamination of soils

Physical methods of soil decontamination require the use of machines. Following the qualifying tests carried out, machines should be constructed with the following characteristics, and subsequently tested in the Chernobyl area:

a machine capable of cutting and removing a thin layer of upper soil. This machine could be based on that already developed, but it should be enlarged and adapted to work in contaminated areas.

a skim and burial machine in order not to drastically modify the overall soil fertility.

Processing of radioactive timber and preliminary treatment of organic wastes

Test should be carried out of the microbial digestion of large amounts of vegetable contaminated matter in field conditions. Previously discarded materials should be used to assess the behaviour in time of radionuclides.

Decontamination of urban areas and machines

In situ measurements of the contamination of different urban surfaces should be carried out to identify the most important ones for decontamination. Decontamination experiments on a practically relevant scale should be performed to supplement existing data (wet sandblasting, strippable coating, etc). Decontamination of machines used in the experimental work should also be performed.

Decontamination by food processing

Food processing has considerable potential for reducing the levels of radionuclide contamination in food products. A unique opportunity exists within the Chernobyl area to test the efficacy of such methods on a practically relevant scale. Investigations should be made of the decontamination levels achievable for caesium, strontium and, where possible, actinides.

Integration of results and analysis of decontamination strategies

The data obtained on the costs, efficacy, etc, of different decontamination techniques should, be integrated into a model (eg, cost benefit analysis) capable of demonstrating the relative merits and disadvantages of different decontamination strategies; the potential role in this context for Geographical Information Systems should be explored.

This analysis should be used to identify priorities for further work in this area based on considerations of the cost effectiveness of the respective techniques and other factors which may affect the acceptability of different decontamination procedures (eg, ecological impact, impact on workers, etc).

Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Coordinator

Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA)
EU contribution
No data
Address
Centre d'études de cadarache sere-ders
13113 Saint-paul-lez-durance
France

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Total cost
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Participants (3)