High-intensity focused ultrasonic (HIFU) decontamination technology to decontaminate complex metal radioactive waste was developed and verified. Ultrasonic decontamination technology is a method widely used in this field, but its energy strength is weak, so it cannot be applied to fixed contamination. The HIFU developed in this study can eliminate a wide range of fixed contamination due to the advantage of maintaining a high frequency while having hundreds of times the energy intensity compared to conventional general ultrasonic method. In addition, there is a merit in that there is no work that generates a lot of secondary wastes such as chemical decontamination method or threatens the safety of workers. In particular, high ultrasonic energy is transmitted to curved parts and inside pipes that cannot be decontaminated with blasting method, so various types of metal wastes can be treated with the HIFU method. In this study, the performance of the HIFU was verified for zirconium chips, and the radioactivity after decontamination was reduced to less than MDA in all subjects.

• Jichang Ryu(KEPCO Nuclear Fuel, 242, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon) Corresponding author
• Junghwan Hong(KEPCO Nuclear Fuel, 242, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon)
• Chanjun Park(KEPCO Nuclear Fuel, 242, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon)
• Jungsuk Park(KEPCO Nuclear Fuel, 242, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon)
• Unhak Seong(enesG Co., Ltd., 8, Techno 10-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon)
• Jungcheol Shin(enesG Co., Ltd., 8, Techno 10-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon)