Verification study of an emerging fire suppression system

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Journal of Chemical Health and Safety

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchas.2015.12.007· OSTI ID:1249060

Cournoyer, Michael E. ^[1]; Waked, R. Ryan ^[1]; Granzow, Howard N. ^[1]; Gubernatis, David C. ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Self-contained fire extinguishers are a robust, reliable and minimally invasive means of fire suppression for gloveboxes. Moreover, plutonium gloveboxes present harsh environmental conditions for polymer materials; these include radiation damage and chemical exposure, both of which tend to degrade the lifetime of engineered polymer components. Several studies have been conducted to determine the robustness of selfcontained fire extinguishers in plutonium gloveboxes in a nuclear facility, verification tests must be performed. These tests include activation and mass loss calorimeter tests. In addition, compatibility issues with chemical components of the self-contained fire extinguishers need to be addressed. Our study presents activation and mass loss calorimeter test results. After extensive studies, no critical areas of concern have been identified for the plutonium glovebox application of Fire Foe™, except for glovebox operations that use large quantities of bulk plutonium or uranium metal such as metal casting and pyro-chemistry operations.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1249060
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1410748
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-15-29624; PII: S1871553215001486
• Journal Information: Journal of Chemical Health and Safety, Journal Name: Journal of Chemical Health and Safety; ISSN 1871-5532
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
Self-contained
fire extinguishers
glovebox
Plutonium
Verification Study