Verification study of an emerging fire suppression system

Self-contained fire extinguishers are a robust, reliable and minimally invasive means of fire suppression for gloveboxes. 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 self-contained 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. In the following study, activation and mass loss calorimeter test results are presented. 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.