Fixatives Used for Decommissioning and Maintenance of Radiological Facilities

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the United Kingdom (UK) National Nuclear
Laboratory (NNL) have been collaborating for several years on materials and
methods for the fogged/misted introduction of fixatives into radiologically
contaminated facilities. The objective of the project is to deliver a process for
reducing airborne radiological and/or mercury contamination and affixing loose
contamination in place, thereby reducing contamination risk to employees and
decreasing D&D cost and schedule. The developed process provides a reliable,
unmanned method of introducing a coating that captures and fixes contamination in
place within facilities.
The INL coating, termed FX2, has undergone extensive non-radiological testing,
including determination that it is non-flammable, affixes contamination and flows
well through unusual geometries (testing at Florida International University). A
series of non-active fogging trials for activity knock/tie-down application have been
completed at NNL Workington on behalf of Idaho National Laboratory (INL). These
trials performed by the NNL employed commercially available agricultural fogging
equipment and the INL’s knock/tie-down latex formulation (FX-2). This testing
successfully demonstrated the ability of the fogging devices to successfully spray
the FX-2 formulation within various scenarios, and prepared the project for a
radioactive trial. The INL has also developed a mercury vapor reducing form of the
coating termed FX-Hg, which has shown great promise in laboratory studies.