Abstract: The maintenance of nuclear power plants is likely to give rise to lots of radioactively contaminated air pipes. Due to the complex structure, it is difficult to remove radioactive contamination therein. So they are mostly treated as radioactive waste in the enterprises. As a high-priced control area dedicated tool, its scrapping has, to some extend, brought pressure to cost control, radioactive waste minimization and radiation protection optimization. Given all this, we carried out a series of decontamination tests, with a process combined with chemical, mechanical, and ultrasonic techniques. As a result, a number of air pipes after use have been decontaminated and reused.

Key words: Radioactively contaminated air pipe, Decontamination, Reuse