https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06773-4
Regular Article
Real-time detection of residual HD contamination levels after decontamination with selected decontamination agents
CBRN Protection GmbH, Brigittagasse 14 Top 25-26, 1200, Vienna, Austria
a
dieter.rothbacher@cbrn-protection.com
Received:
29
March
2024
Accepted:
19
August
2025
Published online:
3
September
2025
NATO doctrine considers clearance decontamination to be applicable after the termination of a CBRN incident and largely deems the conduct of clearance decontamination to be a civilian—not a military—capability (NATO STANREC 4784 CBRN Clearance decontamination, Study draft 1, 2015).
Clearance decontamination procedures are such that the process is verified as being achieved by determining the residual contamination levels on every part of various surfaces of equipment and infrastructure and by demonstrating that such levels are below the ones that are predetermined by the relevant civilian authorities, who are responsible for the safety of the civilian population (NATO STANREC 4784 CBRN, 2015). The current desirable surface contamination detection levels for some chemical warfare agents are technically challenging and may be beyond the capabilities of current technologies of military and civilian CBRN response. Experimental research with this PTR-ToF-MS (proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry) technology, using chemical warfare agents as contaminants, showed that this technology is an invaluable asset in supporting civilian authorities when determining safe levels of surface contamination in real time, after the completion of decontamination operations.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
