A multi-criteria decision-making process for selecting decontamination methods for radioactively contaminated metal components

Abstract

Various decontamination technologies have been developed for removing contaminated areas in in-dustries. Although it is important to consider parameters such as safety, cost, and time when selecting the decontamination technology, till date their comparative study is missing. Furthermore, different decontamination technologies influence the decontamination effects in different ways. Therefore, this study compares different decontamination techniques for the steam generator using a multicriteria decision-making method. A steam generator is a large device comprising both low-and very low-level waste (LLW, VLLW) and reflects the difference in weights of the standards according to the classifica-tion of the waste. For LLW and VLLW decontaminations, chemical oxidizing reduction decontamination (CORD) and decontamination grit blasting were used as the preferred techniques, respectively, consid-ering the purpose of decontamination differs based on the initial state of waste. An expert survey revealed that safety in LLW and waste minimization in VLLW exhibited high preference. This evaluation method can be applied not only to the comparison between each process, but also to the creation of process scenarios. Therefore, determining the decontamination approach using logical decision-making methods may improve the safety and economic feasibility of each step in the decommissioning process and ensure a public acceptance.(c) 2022 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).