Challenges in decontamination technology

The recovery of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 facilities has transformed decontamination from traditional ''mop-and-bucket'' cleaning into an advanced technology. The decontamination of the reactor building and auxiliary and fuel handling building required the development of new methodologies, adaptation of equipment from other fields, and the development of new equipment to meet the projects goals. Experience at TMI-2 has resulted in the development of techniques for; radiological characterization with wide angle detectors and autoradiograhic techniques for the determination of sources and depth of contamination penetration, coatings and base surface removal with ultra-high-pressure water dissolution chemicals and mechanical scabblers (paint-chipping devices), and surface decontamination with high-pressure steam vacuum extraction. This paper presents an overview of the development of decontamination technology and its impact on the TMI-2 program. The benefits of expanding the TMI-2 experience to general use in the nuclear industry are discussed