title: The decontamination of radium from a commercial building located in a large Canadian city.
abstract: In August, 1975, the Ministry of Health of the Province of Ontario at the request of one of the tenants of a building in a large Canadian city conducted a radiation survey of the third floor of the building. The survey, although preliminary, showed that high radiation existed on the third and second floors and that significant contamination existed in some other parts of the six-floor building. The contamination was identified as radium-226. An investigation revealed that the third floor of the building had been used during World War II for processing radium and also for some radium dial painting work. The Atomic Energy Control tboard (AECB) requested Atomic Energy of Canadian Limited (AECL) to remove the radium contaminant from the building. AECL assigned the job to its Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories (CRNL). The objectives were to reduce the radium concentration throughout the building so that radon decay products would be less than 0.02 Working Levels (WL) and exposure rates would be less than 50 microR/h. The techniques used and the extent of decontamination achieved are reported.
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents; D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive; D002170:Canada; D003252:Construction Materials; D003666:Decontamination / Q000592:standards; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D011883:Radium; D011886:Radon / Q000592:standards; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive; D011886:Radon; D011883:Radium