Explosion testing for the container venting system

As part of the study of the hazards of inspecting nuclear waste stored at the Hanford Site, the US Department of Energy and Westinghouse Hanford Company have developed a container venting system to sample the gases that may be present in various metal drums and other containers. In support of this work, the US Bureau of Mines has studied the probability of ignition while drilling into drums and other containers that may contain flammable gas mixtures. The Westinghouse Hanford Company drilling procedure was simulated by tests conducted in the Bureau`s 8-liter chamber, using the same type of pneumatic drill that will be used at the Hanford Site. There were no ignitions of near-stoichiometric hydrogen-air or methane-air mixtures during the drilling tests. The temperatures of the drill bits and lids were measured by an infrared video camera during the drilling tests. These measured temperatures are significantly lower than the {approximately}500{degree}C autoignition temperature of uniformly heated hydrogen-air or the {approximately}600{degree}C autoignition temperature of uniformly heated methane-air. The temperatures are substantially lower than the 750{degree}C ignition temperature of hydrogen-air and 1,220{degree}C temperature of methane-air when heated by a 1-m-diameter wire.