SBIR-STTR Award

Vanadous formate is used in the LOMI process for chemical decontamination of nuclear power plants to reduce the exposure to radiation by plant personnel. In this process, vanadous formate is used to partially reduce iron and nickel oxides that contain radioactive materials, primarily cobalt oxide. These metals are then chelated in solution, absorbed on ion exchange resins, solidified and buried. The LOMI process has been used for about eight years and as yet there is no reliable method to determine the concentration of the active ingredient, the vanadous (+2) ion. The present method of process control consists of making many analyses of iron and nickel in solution and when these values stop increasing the decontamination is terminated. If an on-line analysis for the vanadous ion were used, it would be possible to determine whether all the metal oxides in the system had been removed or the vanadous ion merely spent. An on-line analysis could make this determination and this could lead to more effective decontaminations. It is proposed that infrared or ultraviolet-visible analysis using cylindrical internal reflectance spectroscopy be investigated. Res:

In the Phase I project on this subject, it was demonstrated that UV-vis spectroscopy is capable of determining the concentration of vanadous (V+2) and vanadic (V+3) ions in the presence of the other ions normally found during a chemical decontamination using the LOMI process. The proposal is to construct on-line instrumentation that is capable of operating in the environment of the chemical decontamination of an operating nuclear plant. The instrument system would first be tested in a pilot plant situation during a loop test decontamination of radioactive artifact. Two plant evaluations of the instrument systems will be performed. The first to evaluate the instrument performance. The second to incorporate any improvements in the LOMI process that may have resulted from the first plant test.

Anticipated Results:
An instrument system can be demonstrated that would lead to more effective chemical decontamination. This would lead to a reduction of radiation exposure to operating and maintenance personnel, and to reduced operating cost for nuclear power plants.