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Encapsulation Technologies -- Eliminating Airborne Contamination

Criticality Calculations
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2.0 DESCRIPTION
Deactivation, decontamination, and decommissioning activities are planned for RFETS buildings containing fissile material. Fissile material has collected in equipment over years of production and is now present in significant amounts in some of the gloveboxes. This fissile material in the gloveboxes may be present in various forms, such as surface contamination on the glovebox walls and floors or oxide collected inside or underneath equipment. Holdup measurements will likely be required by SSOC prior to use of the InstaCote material and prior to use of this evaluation. Once all the loose contamination has been removed from the floors and equipment any specific glovebox and once it has undergone cleanout in accordance with requirements similar to the Criticality Safety Evaluation JSC-015 "Out of Commission Gloveboxes and/or Ancillary Equipment in Buildings 776, 777, 779" for the applicable building, the glovebox will be scanned to determine the amount of fissile material holdup. If this scan or the original scan prior to application of the "Out of Commission" notice show a maximum of 200 grams or less at the 95% confidence level (i.e., at the upper 2-sigma confidence level) is present in the entire glovebox, including equipment, then Capture Coating & InstaCote (i.e., both the glycerin and water and the InstaCote preparations) can be applied for the purpose of removing surface contamination on the walls, floors and equipment inside the glovebox. The Encapsulation Technologies Capture Coating is sprayed onto surfaces and allowed to dry prior to application of InstaCote material. The Capture Coating is introduced into the glovebox enclosure in a fine aerosol fog which coalesces onto the surfaces in a manner similar to that with which smut would coat surfaces from the introduction of smoke--this coating provides only a short-term fixate for plutonium surface contamination. The InstaCote mixture is an adherent paint-like coating which is applied over the dried glycerin and water preparation coating to provide a long-term fixate for plutonium surface contamination. As the sheets of Capture Coating & InstaCote are removed from the walls, etc., the sections of accumulated coating material can be removed from the glovebox in any number of 4-liter-volume containers.

If a glovebox scan measures greater than 200 grams in the glovebox, then the Capture Coating & InstaCote may be applied to the entire glovebox, but the Capture Coating & InstaCote material is cut in place into sections the area of which restricts the amount of material to be accumulated at any one time to 200 grams or less. For example, if the assay scan indicates that the highest area in the glovebox is 50 g/ft2 + 5 g/ft2 then the area that may be stripped is 200 grams / 55 g/ft2 = 3.6 ft2. As the sheets of Capture Coating & InstaCote are removed from the walls of the glovebox, etc., sections of the Capture Coating & InstaCote can be accumulated and removed from the glovebox. To remove the Capture Coating & InstaCote from the glovebox it may be necessary to cut the slab into smaller sections for placement into maximum 4-liter-volume containers. The accumulated coating material can be removed from the glovebox in any number of 4-liter containers.

Accumulations of stripcoat material should be bagged out of the glovebox while maintaining the maximum mass and volume restrictions.

Operations involving the application and removal of decontamination coatings do not affect the ability to detect criticality accidents. Evaluations that document detector coverage of the affected facilities have likely been performed already, but if not, then such evaluations should be performed. This activity should only be performed in those areas of the buildings which have been shown to have adequate detector coverage for Nuclear Operations.

3.0 REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENTATION
There are no additional requirements unique to this evaluation.

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