Year
1979
Abstract
Argonne National Laboratory is decommissioning a facility used to fabricate reactor fuel elements. The equipment is contaminated with alpha emitters at levels up to 1012 dpm/100 cm2. The objective of decontamination is to reduce the TRU concentrations below 10 nCi/g of waste. A portable NDA procedure using Nal(Tl) gamma-spectroraetric techniques was selected to measure the residual Pu and 2^1Am in the glove boxes. Assays were performed at different stages in the decontamination process to estimate the detection system sensitivity and the effectiveness of the cleaning efforts.