Independence Demolition (ID) provided
field support services to facilitate the remediation of thorium contaminated
surface and subsurface soils that exceeded United States Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (USNRC) release criteria. The
project goal was to obtain unrestricted release of the impacted property. The contaminated property was divided into
100 cubic meter grids and each grid was evaluated for levels of
contamination. Soil were then surgically
excavated to a depth of one meter, loaded into waiting tractor trailers for
disposal off site at a licensed and approved landfill. Clearance samples were then collected from
the 1 to 2 meter level to verify that the unrestricted use parameters were
met. If the average thorium
concentration of an exposed grid in the 1 – 2 meter layer caused the average
concentration to exceed the acceptable threshold level then additional material
was removed. Once a grid was cleared the
excavations were backfilled with clean granular fill material. ID was required to following rigorous
decontamination processes daily to ensure worker protection and containment of
impacted material.