Dry Flowing Abrasive Decontamination Technique for Pipe Systems with Swirling Air Flow

A dry abrasive decontamination method was developed for removing radioactive corrosion products from surfaces of coolant pipe systems in decommissioning of a nuclear power plant. Erosion behavior of inside surfaces of stainless and carbon steel pipes by a swirling air flow containing alumina or cast-iron grit abrasive was studied. Erosion depths of the test pipes were approximately proportional to an abrasive concentration in air and an exponent of flow rate of airstream. The experimental results indicated that the present method could keep satisfactory erosion ability of abrasives even for a large-size pipe. The present method was successfully applied to ⁶⁰Co-contaminated specimens sampled from a pipe of the water cleanup system of the Japan Power Demonstration Reactor.