Decontamination is regarded, in the nuclear context, to be the removal of contamination with radioactive materials. When handling radioactive materials in the open, in a nuclear facility, contamination is always a possibility. Therefore, it is frequently hard to stop these substances from contacting infrastructure components like pumps and pipes, lab apparatus, containers, and ventilation channels and from deposition of radioactive elements on surfaces (surface contamination), which may also penetrate them. Radioactive compounds can also spread in liquids they contaminate.
All materials are cleaned of radioactive substances, during decontamination. Blasting debris, dust, concentrates, slag, and other radioactive leftovers must be disposed of as radioactive waste. This means that they undergo processing into radioactive waste containers suited for terminal storage, they are temporarily stored, and are then moved to a facility for permanent storage.
In nuclear power plants and research centers, nuclear decontamination jobs are required mostly for decommissioning projects.
There is no a single method that can solve every contamination issue. The choice of technologies is influenced by:
- the facility, which can be a power plant, a fuel cycle facility, a research facility etc.;
- the kind of isotopes that are utilized;
- the activity of the impacted equipment and parts;
- the radioisotopes and contaminated layer, as well as the physical/chemical characteristics of the equipment/parts that need to be disassembled (for instance, concrete vs. metal).