Importance of composition of material - insight of an unusual occurrence during decontamination of solid radioactive waste

Decontamination is inevitable to manage the radioactive waste generated in nuclear fuel cycle facilities. Solid radioactive waste generated in nuclear fuel cycle facilities can be salvaged through proper decontamination after meeting the AERB guidelines for unrestricted release of scrap materials or disposal in waste management facility. Proper understanding about composition of material of solid waste is an important criterion to select correct chemical/cleaning agent for decontamination. Incompatibility of the chemical/cleaning agent with the metallic scrap can lead to untoward incident during decontamination. Generation of NO_x during decontamination of solid radioactive scrap (tool steel) is discussed in this paper. (author)