Critical Cleaning - Alconox, Inc.: Nuclear Power plants need high purity Detergent 8

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Thursday, November 16, 2006
Nuclear Power plants need high purity Detergent 8

Problem:
Nuclear power plants need to perform cleaning of reactory cavities, tools and equipment to remove radioactivity. They need cleaners that do not contain chelating agents that can interfere with ion exchange waste treatment and they need cleaners that do not contain trace impurities that can degrade the long term stability of stainless steel.

Solution:
The most widely used Alconox product in nuclear power is Detergent 8. Detergent 8 is used in removing radioactivity from inside the reactor cavity and from tools and equipment used in the reactor cavity. There are two main reasons they like Detergent 8. First, it does not contain any chelating agents that interfere with ion exchange waste treatment to remove the radioactivity from the used wash and rinse solutions. Second, Detergent 8 has very low levels of any impurities that can degrade the long term stability of stainless steel. I have attached the trace analysis showing the purity of Detergent 8 and how it does not contain chlorides, halogens, low melting metals and sulfates. You can see the trace analysis for Detergent 8 above in the tech info and certicates section; select Detergent 8, trace analysis, and press go. The Detergent 8 has been used in manual cleaning and spray power wash cleaning to replace the use of strippable coatings in reactor cavities. One of the advantages of this is that the cleaning can be done without needing to use the "cherry picker" (the bucket on a crane that holds a person to do maintenance procedures high off the ground) inside the reactor cavity so that the outage can be shorter and the cherry picker can be used for other maintenance needs other than cleaning.

(Nuclear Power plants need high purity Detergent 8)