Aqueous Strippable Polymer Coating for Highly Efficient Primary Radioactive Uranium Decontamination with Versatility...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Environmental Science
• Nuclear Engineering

Background:

• Nuclear industry development generates radioactive waste, necessitating effective decontamination solutions.
• Strippable coatings are utilized for radioactive contamination removal due to their efficiency and substrate compatibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an aqueous strippable coating for removing radioactive uranium from nuclear facility surfaces.
• To evaluate the coating's decontamination efficiency, repeatability, mechanical properties, and substrate versatility.

Main Methods:

• An adsorbent/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer-based aqueous strippable coating was formulated.
• The coating's performance was tested on stainless steel and various other substrates (lacquered, aluminum, glass, plastic, ceramic) with different uranium concentrations.
• Decontamination efficiency was compared against DeconGel.

Main Results:

• The PVA coating demonstrated high uranium decontamination efficiency, reaching 95.5% for 22.5 g/L uranium, surpassing DeconGel.
• The coating exhibited excellent repeatability and improved mechanical properties.
• Versatile application across multiple substrates (79.2% to 95.4% efficiency for 1 g/L uranium) and methods (brushing/spraying) was confirmed.

Conclusions:

• The developed aqueous strippable coating is a highly effective and versatile solution for radioactive uranium decontamination.
• The synergistic effect of ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid disodium salt (EDTA-2Na) and nano-adsorbent CaCO3/TiO2 contributes to the coating's exceptional performance.