U metal fire extinguishing agent testing 1

[BillC]

1. How much U metal should be used to test out and verify that a new fire extinguishing agent is effective on U fires?

2. Should the U metal be machine cuttings? If yes how much should the cuttings weight? Should a solid piece of U metal be used?

3. If a solid piece of U metal is to be used in the fire extinguishing agent test what size should the metal be and how would it be ignited?

4. How many test should be required to qualify the agent?

 

[tstead]

Uranium is not flammable so you don't have to worry about it.

Tim

 

[BillC]

Tstead, Tim U metal will burn and especially U metal machine cuttings. The cuttings can be ignited with a cigarette lighter or even a match. Solid pieces, as well as machine cuttings, can spontaniously ignite through oxidation. Many companys that are involved with U metal disposal or clean-up operations run into U metal fires. We are trying to put together a basic set of fire test protocols to deal with these types of fires.

Thanks for your response.

Best regards.

 

BillC,
I have the same question about testing U fire exrtinguishant capablity test. What are the criterias to evaluate that the fire extinguishant is capable of extinguishing the U fire? The tests will be conducted by the authorities and I dont know how much materials are they gonna use for burning during the test. I have to just write a report on it. What criterias will you suggest me to be considered the most to test/evaluate the capability of that Extinguisher before writing the report. It seems you have worked and Have a good experience in this field and it would be great if you oblige me by giving me some suggestions,
Thank you,
Pankaj.

 

[BillC]

Panku21 it would help if I know what type of agent your people intend to us to extinguish or contain the fire. Also
the size of material to be used will it be machine cuttings?
They should tell you also how much material and it should be say as an example 12 inches long, by 12 inches wide, by 2 to 3 inches high. The test should be run at a mininum of three (3) times to prove that the extinguishing agent is effective. I also would assume that they are going to use a dry powder to contain the fire. You do not want to use a liquid as the liquid agent may result in reaching a criticality event. Some of the areas to measure is the weight of the U metal before and after the burn. The time to extinguish the fire this is the measurement of time that passes from applying the agent to when the fire is totally extinguished. The other item is the temperature. You should measure the temperature just before you apply the agent and then measure it and record the temperture every 30 seconds until it is extinguished or reads the room temperature. One last area you need to keep track of how much dry powder is applied to the fire such as 20 pounds, or 50 pounds etc.

I think if you record the above items you should be OK. If you can tell me the agent you want to use for extinguishing I would be very interested in it. If you are going to use materials available in todays market more than likely your people will only contain the fire and the fuel, U metal, will burn itself out.

If you need to more information let me know.

Best regards and let me know how you do.

 

[BillC]

Panku21, you may want your people to first test the extinguishing agent on zirconium machine cuttings. If the agent can extinguish this metal then they should be able to extinguish U metal fires. Once again the extinguishing agents available can only control the spread of the fire but they do not extinguish it.
Best regards.

 

[BillC]

Panku21, If you also want you can get an update on a future U metal fire test at billc@tligroup.com.
Best regards.

 

[Tremolo]

Yes, uranium fines are flammable, and a huge technical report on the topic is publicly available:
Uranium Pyrophoricity Phenomena and Prediction, FAI/00-39, SNF-6781, Fluor Hanford, Richland, WA., October, 2000.

Using water may not necessarily work: U oxidizes with both air and water. However, if the water cools the fines sufficiently, this will work.