Criticality Control Overpack Fire Testing (Phase III)

Abstract

This report will describe the one test conducted during phase III of the Pipe Overpack Container (POC) test campaign, present preliminary results from these tests, and discuss implications for the Criticality Control Overpack (CCO). The goal of this test was to see if aerosol surrogate material inside the Criticality Control Container (CCC) gets released when the drum lid of the CCO comes off during a thirty-minute long, fully-engulfing, fire test. As expected from POC tests conducted in Phase I and II of this test campaign, the CCO drum lid is ejected about one minute after the drum is exposed to fully-engulfing flames. The remaining pressure inside the drum is high enough to eject the top plywood dunnage a considerable distance from the drum. Subsequently, most of the bottom plywood dunnage supporting the CCC burns off during and after the fire. High pressure buildup inside the CCC and inside two primary containers holding the surrogate powder also results in damage to the filter media of the CCC and the filter-house, thread attachment of the primary canisters. No discernable release of surrogate powder material was detected from the two primary containers when pre- and post-test average mass were compared. However, when the average masses are corrected to account for possible uncertainties in mass measurements, error overlap does not preclude the possibility that some surrogate powder mass may have been lost from these primary canisters. Still, post-test conditions of the secondary canisters enclosing these two primary canisters suggest it is very unlikely this mass loss would have escaped into the CCC.