Chemical
Advanced Building Decontamination Technology
Related Patents: 7,723,463 ; 7,833,357 ; 8,070,881
Contact: David R. Anderson
Phone: (208) 526-0837
E-mail: Send E-mail
A threat exists that a terrorist group may detonate a radioactivity dispersal device (RDD) generating a cloud of radioactive particles that could contaminate public and private buildings and render them useless for a long time. This is particularly a problem for the military because there are some buildings that must be occupied to carry out mission requirements. In addition, the demolition process turns what started as grams or kilograms of radioactive material into millions of tons of contaminated waste, which would vastly overwhelm the capacity of the radioactive material disposal sites currently in use. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sponsored a program to develop decontamination tech-niques that can decontami-nate to below 1 mSv/year at 1 meter distance.