The Effects of Contaminant Aging on decontamination of concrete surfaces - 20412
Citation:
Hepler, K., M. Kaminski, N. Escamilla, AND M. Magnuson. The Effects of Contaminant Aging on decontamination of concrete surfaces - 20412. WM2020, Pheonix, AZ, March 08 - 12, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
Understanding the relationship between decontamination efficacy and contaminant aging is imperative for developing effective remediation strategies following a large-scale contamination event. Non-destructive decontamination of concrete following a contamination incident becomes more difficult with increased time between contamination and decontamination because contaminants may chemically bind into the concrete and/or penetrate into the concrete subsurface. After aging, coupons were either decontaminated or analyzed to determine contaminant penetration depths. Coupons were decontaminated with 0.1 M potassium chloride (KCl) solution applied either by flowing solution across the contaminated coupon face or non-destructive power washing.
Description:
In this work, we evaluated the decontamination efficiency of two decontamination methods on concrete samples contaminated with soluble cesium-137 (Cs-137) and silica particles with 0.5-μm and 2-μm diameters. Concrete samples were aged between 1 and 59 days, with half of the coupons receiving 1 mL of artificial rainwater about once every three days