Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium facility had a fire start from a lightbulb’s melted plastic dripping onto glovebox parts in November, a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report said.
The fire went out before staff could discover it, and was small enough that the sprinklers did not activate, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican who first reported the fire.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) report recommended the light fixtures at the facility, also called PF-4, be checked for recalls.
“There have been other issues with lighting fixtures throughout the laboratory over the past few years that resulted in recommendations to ensure that there are no product recalls on lighting equipment and that compatibility of equipment is always verified,” the report said. “This incident also demonstrates the importance of a robust combustible loading program as there were no extraneous combustibles ignited by the dripping plastic.”
Steven Horak, a spokesman for the lab, wrote in an email to the New Mexican that the light fixtures at the site of the fire have already been replaced, and others are being inspected to see if they also require replacement.
Horak also said that an upgraded fire detection system for PF-4 is under construction and would be completed within the upcoming year. “That incudes the addition of many more smoke detectors, and other alarm initiating devices,” Horak said.
According to the DNFSB report, that same week contaminated water from a glovebox splashed a staffer, also at PF-4. The worker was moved to a decontamination room, and no other staffers were contaminated.
