Development of an air cleaning system for dissolving high explosives from nuclear warheads
We have been developing a workstation for the removal of high explosive (HE) from nuclear warheads using hot sprays of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to dissolve the HE> An important component of the workstation is the air cleaning system tat is used to contain DMSO aerosols and vapor and radioactive aerosols. The air cleaning system consists of a condenser to liquefy the hot DMSO vapor, a demister pad to remove most of the DMSO aerosol, a HEPA filter, an activated carbon filter and a final HEPA filter to meet the redundancy requirement for HEPA filters in radioactive applications. The demister pad of a 4 inch thick mat of glass and steel fibers and was selected by comparative evaluations. After all the components were assembled, we ran a series of performance tests on the components and system to determine the particle capture efficiency as a function of size for dioctyl sebacate and DMSO aerosols using laser particle counters and filter samples. The pad had an efficiency greater than 99% for 0.1 micron DMSO particles. Test results on the prototype carbon filter showed only 70% efficiency, instead of the 99.9% in small laboratory tests.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 644619
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC--127216; CONF-960715--; ON: DE98050753; CNN: W-7405-Eng-48
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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