The use of washes of the St. Petersburg company Mendeleev LLC for the removal of radioactively contaminated paint and varnish coatings
As you know, paint and varnish coatings are used in almost all industrial areas. The nuclear industry is no exception in this sense: painting equipment, concrete walls, and various structures helps protect the base material from contamination with radioactive isotopes.
At the same time, not every paint is suitable for radiation hazardous objects. The coatings used must be non-combustible, resistant to radiation, and chemically inert. If the latter requirement is not met, radioactive substances can become firmly attached to the paint over time, and their removal (decontamination) becomes a rather difficult task.
If the contamination is firmly fixed on the paintwork material, then the paint itself actually becomes a source of radiation. The most unfavorable situation is when isotopes penetrate deep into the coating. In this case, “soft” methods, such as treatment with a detergent solution, are ineffective: for effective decontamination, complete removal of the paint is required.
The task of decontamination of painted surfaces arises when planning measures for the decommissioning (DE) of enterprises in the nuclear industry. For example, at the Leningrad NPP at the moment (2023) forever…
