Patent ID: 6447366
Filing Date: 2002-09-10
Classification: B24C,G21F

Abstract:
A decontamination and characterization system for decontaminating and characterizing a radioactively contaminated structure having interior and exterior surfaces, the system comprising:a decontamination module having a housing with an inlet and an outlet, a conveyor extending from the housing inlet to the housing outlet, an exterior surface removing station disposed inside the housing near a first portion of the conveyor, the exterior surface removing station including a grit blaster projecting an abradant toward the exterior surface of the structure, an interior surface removing station disposed inside the housing near a second portion of the conveyor, the interior surface removing station including a movable blast lance projecting an abradant toward the interior surface of the structure, and a collection assembly for collecting spent abradant and removed surface fragments; and a characterization module positioned downstream of the decontamination module and having a housing with an inlet and an outlet, a conveyor extending from the housing inlet to the housing outlet, a material analyzer positioned inside the housing, the material analyzer detecting radioactive contamination in both the interior and exterior surfaces of the structure and generating contamination data, and a computer electrically connected to the material analyzer for interpreting the contamination data and generating characterization information.