Study on the cause of fire and explosion incident at bituminization demonstration facility

The bituminization Demonstration Facility of Tokai Reprocessing Plant had a fire and explosion incident. The cause of the incident was investigated. Also, the facility condition and release of radioactive materials were evaluated. The cause of the fire and subsequent explosion was determined in a two year investigation. The main cause of the fire was that the temperature of the bituminized product rose to an unusually high temperature by a physical heating phenomena inside the extruder, which was caused by the lowering the feed rate of liquid waste. A moderate chemical reaction in the bituminized product continued and consequently the bituminized product overheated and ignited. The cause of the explosion was the accumulation of flammable gases generated from insufficiently extinguished bituminized product in the filing room in which the ventilation system had been shut down. The flammable gas was ignited by another bituminized product that overheated to the flash point temperature. This report details the condition of the facility before and after the incident, cause of the incident, and an evaluated amount of released radioactive materials. (author)