Fire Protection Research Program at Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories is executing a program for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to provide data needed for confirmation of the suitability of current design standards and regulatory guides for fire protection and control in water reactor power plants. This paper summarizes the activities of this ongoing program through October 1980. Characterization of electrically initiated fires revealed a margin of safety in the separation criteria of Regulatory Guide 1.75 for such fires in IEEE-383 qualified cable. However, tests confirmed that these guidelines and standards are not sufficient, in themselves, to protect against exposure fires. This paper describes both small and full scale tests to assess the adequacy of fire retardant coatings and full scale tests on fire shields to determine their effectiveness. It also describes full scale tests to determine the effects of walls and ceilings on fire propagation between cable trays. Some small-scale scoping tests have been conducted to investigate the effects of varying the furnace pressure on cable penetration performance in the ASTM-E-119 Fire Test. The Sandia Fire Research Facility has been completed and a series of tests have been run to assess the effectiveness of Halon-1301 as a suppression system in extinguishing deep-seated cable-tray fires. It was found that given sufficient soak times Halon systems are effective in extinguishing such fires.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 6986230
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-80-2422C; CONF-801053-4
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
220900* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
CABLES
CONDUCTOR DEVICES
ELECTRIC CABLES
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
FIRE EXTINGUISHERS
FIRE FIGHTING
FIRE PREVENTION
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
POWER PLANTS
REACTORS
SAFETY
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
WATER COOLED REACTORS