Reference, Questions and Help > Lessons Learned
how hot is clean?
atomicarcheologist:
I was at the homefront this past weekend, mixing Cinco de Mayo and Mother's Day holidays when I ran across some old work buddies. After some tequilas and catching up conversation, things turned to current affairs of the business. We started discussing contamination levels, disposal practices, and some of the engineering tools now in place to deal with these things. During the heat of the conversation, we could not agree on a limit of contamination (fixed) that could legally be left on interior surfaces of a building that is being delicensed. I was appointed point man to put this subject to the readers of Nukeworker.com. So, how much contamination can a licensee leave on their buildings' interior surfaces?
PWHoppe:
Depends on who the licensee is. Are we talking the DOE or the NRC? Are we talking about EPA, State (various), and what sort of isotopes are we looking for; mfp, TRU, NORM, or other? The questions are almost endless. This can get into a really complex issue and one with no easy answer.
RDTroja:
--- Quote from: PWHoppe on May 09, 2005, 05:44 ---This can get into a really complex issue and one with no easy answer.
--- End quote ---
I couldn't agree more. The whole 'no detectable activity' mindset that the nuclear industry has adopted as a knee-jerk reaction to some mistakes that were made releasing contaminated materials is a prime symptom of the problem. As the science of detection improves and the limits get squeezed down, we are more frequently stuck with the 'by what standard' question. I dread the day when the MCA/GeLi is the release tool and the debate becomes 'how long a count is required to get the MDA low enough?', but I feel it coming if we don't get a good dose of sanity from somewhere.
RDTroja:
--- Quote from: Rennhack on May 09, 2005, 05:51 ---Generally, (depends on the isotope) 5 k average, 15 k max.
--- End quote ---
Wow... if that is true, we should just leave everything we can't get out now in the buildings until they are delicensed and then they will be releasable... ;D
JeffHawk:
Do a search for "MARSSIM" on the internet. This is the standard that we used to define what releasable means during the D&D work at Trojan.
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