Isotron® Background
Figure 1. Decontamination of Floors in NPP (1970s)
Figure 2. Electrokineic Decontamination of Concrete Buildings (1980s)
Figure 3. "Anti-Contamination" Coatings in Reactor Cavity (1990s)
Figure 4. Dust Suppression Coating Systems (Today)
Isotron was founded in New Orleans, Louisiana and in 2001 located to Seattle, Washington. Isotron is a member of the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology NSF Center at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Isotron Corporation has successfully commercialized a number of high performance polymer systems that are in use today.
The Isolock®-300 family of strippable coatings was developed to address the radioactive contaminants associated with the nuclear reactor refueling operation. Isolock was used at a number of nuclear power plants including Oyster Creek, DC Cook, and Houston Power and Light. Throughout the 1990s, Isotron engineers, under contract for the US Department of Energy, developed and deployed advanced electrokinetic processes for decontaminating surfaces exposed to radionuclides and heavy metals. The contaminant capture media were based on patented polymeric hydrogel technology that was trade-named “Electrosorb®”.
Isotron’s founders have extensive experience in the area of high-performance coatings and decontamination systems. During the 1970-1980 timeframe, Hank Lomasney (CTO of Isotron) founded and managed Imperial Coatings, which he grew from a start-up company to one of America’s top 20 industrial coating companies. Imperial produced one of the most advanced coatings lines in the industry. Henry was Technical Director of all research and development efforts related to the company’s coating systems, including the ALARA-1146 strippable coating technology. In 1985, he founded Isotek Corp, a niche coating company, which designed strippable coatings for the asbestos removal market (“SprayPoly”). This company was sold 3 years later for a sizable profit. In 1986, Mr. Lomasney founded Isotron to develop advanced electrokinetic decontamination technologies to address DOE and EPA superfund sites.
Christina Lomasney, co-founder, President and CEO of Isotron, is a Physicist and has worked in the research and development of NBC decontamination technologies for over 10 years. During 1993-96, she worked with former Nuclear Weapons Scientists from Russia on a number of decontamination efforts within Russia and The Ukraine. Later, she held research positions at the University of Washington’s Chemical Engineering department where she investigated novel technologies for the decontamination of soil, groundwater and concrete within the US nuclear infrastructure. After founding a corporation dealing in advanced software systems design, Ms. Lomasney and her father joined forces in 2001 to re-start Isotron. In addition to running the day-to-day operations of the Corporation, Ms. Lomasney is principle investigator on several of the Corporations R&D efforts. She is also Chairman of ASTM E54.03 on Decontamination Standards for Homeland Security.
Isotron is positioned to exploit advanced technology and investment in Research and Development and to manage the development of nanoparticle and decontamination technologies into the high-performance coatings marketplace.
Isotron holds patents related to coating and polymer science, including decontamination of various media protected under US patents numbered:
- 5,543,719 entitled “Barrier leak detection using electrokinetic ion transport”
- 5,489,370 entitled “Removal of ions from a bulk source by electropotential ion transport using a host receptor matrix”
- 5,482,632 entitled “Extracting a target ion from an aqueous solution by ion exchange and electropotential ion transport”
- 5,262,024 entitled “Method for effecting the desorption of ionic species from a soil matrix using wave energy”
- 5,405,509 entitled “Remediation of a bulk source by electropotential ion transport using a host receptor matrix”
This technology was commercialized under the trade names Electrosorb™ and the SEEC Pad™ technology for concrete decontamination.
Technology related to nuclear decontamination, strippable polymer membranes are protected under patent number 5,091,447, entitled “In-situ polymeric membrane for cavity sealing and mitigating transport of liquid hazardous materials based on aqueous epoxy-rubber alloys”. This strippable coating technology has been deployed in commercial decontamination service under the trademark Isolock®-300.
Exclusive patent rights related to coating application are protected under patent number 5,133,117 entitled “Device for applying spreadable coatings”.
Pending patents today encompass technologies related to the use of reactive and catalytic nanoparticles in coatings to wide-area expedient decontamination technologies.