Study on fire safety assessment of nuclear grade activated carbon

In order to further clarify the fire safety evaluation of nuclear grade activated carbon, thermal analysis combined with pore structure and phase analysis was adopted for coal-based activated carbon and coconut shell activated carbon used in nuclear power plants. On the basis of establishing the relative fire safety evaluation model by using four important parameters: activation energy (E), maximum mass loss rate (DTG_p), maximum mass loss rate temperature (T_p) and rapid reaction percentage (A₁₂), the O/C ratio and enthalpy (H) were further introduced into the evaluation model to calculate the relative fire safety factor (RFSF). The results show that O/C ratio and enthalpy have greater influence on the fire safety of activated carbon than porosity characteristics. The RFSF values of coal-based and coconut shell activated carbon are 1.33 and 1.08, indicating that fire safety is higher than that of impregnated coconut shell activated carbon.