Japan Earthquake: nuclear plants Fukushima part 2

Many years ago a co-worker summarized our rad safety training as, "don't lick the walls."

Vanadium 50 said:

cesium and strontium?

Yes, primarily, and their decay products, e.g., Ba and Y, and a little Rb, precursor to Sr. They will be distributed at the surface and into the concrete. It's what accumulates at the surface, and it's not so much beta and decay gammas.

They could spray a binder on the concrete, but then disassembly, which would cause dust is an issue. One would have to do a wet grind and collect the fragments and particulate matter, and filter what dissolves in the water.

Vanadium 50 said:

If so, isn't that a good thing?

If you can just leave it alone then could be fine, but they are still supposed to work there for some time. And to keep the radiation levels of such working environment low enough to keep limits is troublesome. It's no longer an emergency, so limits are strict...

As I recall even in the very first years they already had some attempts and tests on this, and indeed, removing surface (possibly contaminated) layers was an option they tested.

Grinding, pressure washing, shot-blasting, acidic etching and so on...