Development of New Containment Tents for Rapid Worker Evacuation from the Workspace in Emergencies at Plutonium Fuel Handling Facilities

Abstract

When severe contamination incidents occur in plutonium fuel handling facilities, containment tents are assembled to contain alpha-emitting radionuclides from spreading and rescue workers for evacuation with necessary decontamination. However, the time to assemble the conventional containment tents is too long, and the inhalation risk is proportionately high. Inadequacies in tent structures were also recognized. Therefore, we developed new containment tents that are more easily assembled and function effectively, by improving and refurbishing the shortcomings of conventional tents. The new tents were evaluated in an airborne contamination situation at the plutonium fuel fabricating facility. The tents appropriately functioned for the intended use, but other shortcomings emerged, therefore, we modified the tent structure. The new features of the developed and modified tents can be summarized as follows: 1. The time to assemble the set of tents is significantly reduced from two hours to half an hour. 2. Multiple evacuation pathways can be arranged by adding a new passage tent with zippers on all the side surfaces. 3. Various layouts can be arranged by changing the tent connection method. The tents could be used for similar but wider alpha-emitting radioactive particulate handling facilities.