Researchers use plasma etching to reduce radwate

17 Jun 2002

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are developing techniques for using an ionized gas to remove uranium, plutonium and related radioactive isotopes from contaminated tools, gloveboxes, pipes and other materials. Since the development of the atomic bomb began in the early 1940s, the U.S. weapons complex has accumulated approximately 256,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste, waste that cannot be disposed of in an ordinary landfill because of its radioactivity.

Los Alamos scientists are using a plasma to etch away the contamination and hopefully leave many materials uncontaminated. The plasma is created from energy that strips electrons from neutral molecules creating both free electrons and positively charged ions. The research team uses a bench-top trifluoride gas plasma system to produce fluorine ions that remove up to 99.9 percent of uranium from metal surfaces.