Ensure Safety with Decontamination and Decommissioning

Decontamination and decommissioning is a very, very important aspect of environmental safety. It is carried out to decontaminate and dismantle as well as to remove structural contamination. Decontamination and decommissioning also involves the release for reuse of facilities which are no longer in use. The whole process is specifically conducted on reactors, processing plants, storage tanks, laboratory facilities, and other similar structures. Decontamination and decommissioning is very important in the process of establishing radiation safety. When radiation safety is ensured, you can be sure that the risk that the facility users get radiation poisoning or sickness is greatly reduced. Also, it's only ethical that the employer engage in proper environmental practices.

Radiation Safety is ensured when proper decontamination as well as decommissioning procedures are observed, the said processes are as follows: the characterization and measurement of the contaminants present, both radioactive and non-radioactive); the removal of huge quantities of uranium; the disassembly of equipment as well as the decontamination of all surfaces; the clean up as well as the demolition of abandoned buildings; and of course, the management of waste management or the distribution of harmful waste products to both disposal and recycling.

Waste management is one of the more important facets of decontamination. The whole waste management process covers the safe and precise collection, separation, treatment, and disposal of the harmful waste products that come from the whole decontamination process. There are two general rules that one should follow when it comes to governing and managing wastes. One is to make sure that you do not create huge quantities of secondary waste during the treatment process that must then also be treated; this defeats the entire purpose of efficient decontamination. The other rule is to be guided by the advantages and disadvantages of either reducing the volume of the wastes or disposing all waste products. One must always choose the more cost efficient course of action. This is so to save resources, economic or otherwise, as well as to avoid delays in the whole treatment.

When the whole treatment process is carried out properly, you can be sure that proper nuclear safety will be observed. Why is it so important to observe nuclear safety? For starters, nuclear sickness and poisoning is one of the most dangerous conditions that a living being can get. Even at very low levels, chronic exposure to radiation has been associated with a high risk for cancer as well as a host of other diseases and conditions. Longer term exposure to radiation, at doses that are even less than that which produces serious acute radiation sickness, can cause many genetic mutations. These genetic mutations then affect the overall health of a human being negatively and add up to increase the risk of cancer.

Source: ArticleRates.com