Decontamination effectiveness for wiping vehicle in screening during a nuclear emergency

Hiraoka, Hirokazu  ; Manabe, Kentaro   ; Hirouchi, Jun ; Takahara, Shogo  

Evacuation by private vehicle is a basic evacuation strategy during a nuclear emergency in Japan. When vehicles are evacuated from the contaminated areas, screening is conducted to inspect for radioactive contamination. If the radioactive contamination of vehicles exceeds criteria, decontamination is performed by wiping with wet waste cloths. Therefore, insights into the effectiveness of wet cloth wiping are necessary to conduct decontamination in an optimized manner. However, detailed information on the effectiveness of wiping each component of a vehicle by wet waste cloths is not sufficient. The present study simulated cesium contamination deposited on vehicle surfaces during a nuclear accident and experimentally assessed the effectiveness of wet cloth wiping for decontaminating newly manufactured vehicle components (windshield, hood panel, and aluminum alloy). The results showed that the decontamination factor (DF) for the windshield was approximately 8 to 26, while the DF for the hood panel was more than 32 and that for the aluminum alloy was more than 31. Furthermore, it was observed that decontamination effectiveness did not change after the second wiping.