Plutonium skin contamination and decontamination by decontaminants

In oder to find out the most effective method of plutonium skin decontamination, removal tests were carried out with eleven typical decontaminants used in the form of aqueous solutions. The contaminant chosen was plutonium chloride in 1N hydrochloric acid and fresh pig skin was used to substitute human skin. From the tests on plutonium skin contamination and decontamination, it was proved that the plutonium skin contamination remaining after washing with water consisted of what can be called physical adsorption, which is decontaminated by the action of surface activity or detergency, and what can be designated as chemisorption, which can only be removed by chemical reaction or chelate formation. The fraction constituted by the physical adsorption was found to decrease with duration of contamination, being over 99% at 10sec contamination, 92.5% at 10min, and 90% at 60min, although the total amount of contamination increased with the duration. It was found that for plutonium skin decontamination, synthetic detergent is the most effective when the treatment immediately follows the event of contamination, while for delayed treatment given after an elapse of over 10min sodium hypochlorite or EDTA is the best agent. (author)