Pyrophoricity of tritium-storage bed materials

Conference · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6949207

Longhurst, G R

Experiments were conducted on samples of depleted uranium and on intermetallic compounds of zirconium--cobalt and lanthanum--nickel--aluminide to evaluate the pyrophoricity of the activated materials and their hydrides and deuterides on exposure to air. It was found that none of the materials spontaneously ignited when exposed to room temperature air, but the uranium and the zirconium--cobalt both ignited in air at moderately elevated temperatures. Activated (dehydrided) materials showed stronger reactions than did the hydrides, but they ignited at essentially the same temperatures. Deuterides showed effectively the same characteristics as the hydrides except the ignition temperature of zirconium--cobalt deuteride was reduced by 20--50 K from that of the hydride. The possibility of a fire in tritium storage beds is real, especially if uranium or zirconium--cobalt are used as storage materials, but fires may not occur until the bed is heated. 9 refs., 12 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-76ID01570
• OSTI ID: 6949207
• Report Number(s): EGG-FSP-8050; CONF-880505-40; ON: DE88015105
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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ACTINIDES
ALLOYS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
COBALT ALLOYS
COMBUSTION PROPERTIES
ELEMENTS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LANTHANUM ALLOYS
LANTHANUM BASE ALLOYS
LIGHT NUCLEI
MATERIALS
METALS
NICKEL ALLOYS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
RARE EARTH ALLOYS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTOR MATERIALS
TRITIUM
URANIUM
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
ZIRCONIUM ALLOYS
ZIRCONIUM BASE ALLOYS