New laser decontamination technique for radioactively contaminated metal surfaces using acid-bearing sodium silicate gel

ゲル除染剤を用いたレーザー除染技術

亀尾 裕 ; 中島 幹雄; 平林 孝圀*

Kameo, Yutaka; Nakashima, Mikio; Hirabayashi, Takakuni*

放射性金属廃棄物に対する新規除染技術として、ケイ酸ナトリウムと酸から調製したゲル除染剤を用いたレーザー除染法について検討した。Coトレーサーを塗布した模擬汚染試料及び動力試験炉(JPDR)の一次冷却系統から切り出した実汚染試料に本除染法を適用したところ、23回の除染で99%以上の放射能(Co)を除去することができた。除染反応におけるレーザー照射の効果を明らかにするため、腐食生成物層中の酸素及び鉄の化学結合状態をX線光電子分光分析装置で調べた。その結果、ゲル除染剤による腐食生成物層の溶解が、レーザー照射を行うことにより大幅に促進されることがわかった。

A new laser decontamination method utilizing a gel made from a sodium silicate solution and an acid was developed for removing radioactive nuclide incorporated into a surface oxide layer on metal waste. Decontamination tests were carried out using both simulated contaminated samples and pipe specimens cut from the primary coolant system of the Japan Power Demonstration Reactor. In the case of surface oxide layer consisting mainly of iron oxide, more than 99% of surface radioactivities were removed after two to three decontamination runs. In order to ascertain the role of laser irradiation on chemical reactions, chemical states of O and Fe in the oxide layer before and after decontamination were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that the oxide layer was dissolved into the acid-containing gel, and the reaction was extensively promoted by the laser irradiation.