Wednesday, September 24, 2008
2008 R&D 100 Winner
A major problem at one Dept. of Energy (DOE) facility was that standard wet wiping was not removing legacy radioactive beryllium contamination to the required non-detectable level. Many DOE facilities have similar contamination issues, and that’s what led Ronald Simandl at Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, LLC, Oak Ridge, Tenn., to create SIMWYPES, a non-tacky cloth that removes toxic beryllium and beryllium oxide particulate from hard surfaces to non-detectable levels without transferring a tacky residue. SIMWYPES are non-toxic and non-hazardous. They depend on the Van der Walls force to grab and remove particulate from surfaces. This technology offers a tremendous improvement in performance over melt-blown microfiber wipes and wet wiping in general. Moreover, because SIMWYPES cleaning cloths do not leave a tacky residue, they offer a substantial improvement over standard commercial tack cloths. In addition to government applications, this dry wiping technology will likely have many commercial, home, and hobby uses.
Technology
Non-tacky cloth that removes toxic beryllium and beryllium oxide particulate from hard surfaces
Developer
Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, LLC
