Piloting of high pressure washing for radiological decontamination of UK urban surfaces

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is commissioning research to develop high pressure washing for decontaminating UK urban surfaces following an uncontrolled release of radioactivity to the environment.

Defra is the designated Lead Government Department in England for coordinating the recovery from accidental or deliberate radiological or nuclear (RN) incidents.

To that end, Defra facilitates UK access to decontamination capabilities for buildings, environment, and infrastructure following a significant radiation release.

When not recovering from an incident, Defra builds the evidence base to develop policy and operational delivery options for use during RN incident recovery.

The aim of this project is to develop pressure washing procedures to decontaminate UK urban surfaces contaminated with strontium-90 (90Sr), caesium-137 (137Cs), and americium-241 (241Am).

The objectives of the project are: - Source suitable urban materials (asphalt, concrete, and/or brick) from the UK built environment and contaminate with 90Sr, 137Cs, and 241Am (or suitable surrogates). - Determine the effect of water pressure conditions (e.g., water pressure and exposure time to the water spray) on the decontamination of contaminated UK urban surfaces. - Quantify the volumes of (and contaminant levels in) wastewater generated by different pressure washing strategies to evaluate waste management requirements.