Equipment and Facility Decommissioning: How Can Wipe Sample Results Be Used to Verify Process Equipment and Facility Decontamination During Decommissioning?
Belk, Bill
(DECON Environmental Services, Inc., Hayward, CA)
To present a scienfitic method for using wipe sample results collected from discreet and non-discreet surfaces to verify that equipment and facility surfaces meet regulatory or industry standard criteria after decontamination during decommissioning. We will review an equation for converting wipe sample results from micrograms per wipe to milligrams per kilogram and how it is used in this method. In addition, we will view a case history where applying this method has provided savings on the cost of decommissioning and reduced the unnecessary disposal to landfills of equipment and/or building infrastructure as a hazardous waste. This presentation will provide the listener with specific steps that will answer such questions as: * How do I use wipe sample results to verify that my semiconductor process equipment, process piping and ducting, or building surfaces are below regulatory or industry standard criteria after decontamination when the criteria is most often given in parts per million or millgrams/Kilogram? * Is collecting a 100-square centimeter wipe sample adequate for this method? * Can I use wipe sample results for verifying decontamination criteria for discreet and non-discreet surfaces of process equipment and building surfaces? * What are some examples of applying this sample methodology for wipe samples and how much money was actually saved? * What assumptions are used for wipe sampling discreet and non-discreet surfaces to obtain a final result that can be compared with known regulatory or accepted industry standard decontamination criteria? * Are there areas in the decommissioning process that do not provide financial or environmental value when one employs wipe sample methods to verify the surfaces as meeting known regulatory or industry standard decontamination criteria?