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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

AGING BEHAVIOR OF VITON O-RING SEALS IN THE 9975 SHIPPING PACKAGE

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1033337

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is storing plutonium (Pu) materials in the K-Area Materials Storage (KAMS) facility. The Pu materials were packaged according to the DOE-STD-3013 standard and shipped to the SRS in Type B 9975 packages. The robust 9975 shipping package was not designed for long-term product storage, but it is a specified part of the storage configuration and the KAMS facility safety basis credits the 9975 design with containment. Within the 9975 package, nested stainless steel containment vessels are closed with dual O-ring seals based on Viton{reg_sign} GLT or GLT-S fluoroelastomer. The aging behavior of the O-ring compounds is being studied to provide the facility with advanced notice of nonconformance and to develop life prediction models. A combination of field surveillance, leak testing of surrogate fixtures aged at bounding service temperatures, and accelerated-aging methodologies based on compression stress-relaxation and oxygen consumption analysis is being used to evaluate seal performance. A summary of the surveillance program relative to seal aging behavior is presented.

Research Organization:
SRS
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC09-08SR22470
OSTI ID:
1033337
Report Number(s):
SRNL-STI-2012-00023
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English