PNNL

Abstract

At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the use of peristaltic pumps is a convenient and normally effective method of transferring fluids. This type of pump allows different kinds of liquids to be pumped without having to clean the pump; only the tubing needs to be changed. For the pump application described in this paper, it was very important to keep the pump clean to minimize both radiological and chemical contamination. Unfortunately, an unforeseen condition created a significant failure in the pump tubing that resulted in spray of caustic material, spreading minimal radiological contamination inside of a radiological controlled area. This paper describes the methods used to determine the cause of the tube rupture.