Frank V. was my tour guide. I was a wide-eyed squid, but I just figured that the seal table was supposed to spray like a mall fountain when they flooded the cavity.
The max contam is usually around 500ccpm. It must be fixed - anything duct tape won't remove is fixed.
They don't walk around in their socks. They get the boots along with any PC's they need, change the boots and don the PC's, then put their outside boots in the locker. When they come back out of the CA, they change the boots back and put the RCA boots on the shelf. RP smears the floors and shelves periodically and spot checks boots. Workers are always required to frisk shoes ASAP after crossing SOP's, so they are looking for any increase in count levels. (A quick reality check here: NOBODY EVER does this frisk anyway - which is why people show up at access with crapped-up boots in the first place.) If the boots are gone from the shelf, it means RP tossed them out.
You ought to see Boot Decon at Nine Mile. It has numbered cubbies, replacement sneakers for guys who just lost their boots, decon stuff, and a frisker (I'm not sure about the frisker). But they don't decon boots at access. They send you to boot decon, where you try to get your own boots clean. If it is too fixed to come out, you leave the boots in a cubby, take some sneakers to wear outside, and return the sneakers the next day. If the level was too high after you abandoned decon efforts, you just trash the old boots.
Not everybody changes into their RCA boots every time. Some guys only do it if they are doing a wet job or are going into the drywell.
You think that's complicated? You'd love Canada. Every worker has to have a separate pair (the issued ones are yellow, but you can buy a pair and paint them yellow) for the RCA. Of course there is the changing underwear and showering thing to deal with too.