Review and Security Assessment of Red Oil Explosions in Evaporator

Purex progress is widely applied in the nuclear fuel reprocessing plants all over the world. However, various security problems occur in reprocessing facility involving the intense attention of red oil explosion. The exothermic reactions among TBP, nitric salts and nitric acid were responsible for the red oil explosion. In this paper, explosion events at nuclear fuel reprocessing plants initiated by red oil phenomena were reviewed. The formation and reaction mechanisms of red oil causing explosions were analyzed. Moreover, the evaluation and analysis model was built up to evaluate the security assessment of red oil explosion from the associated calculations of data in the typical red oil explosive accidents and the results of subsequent laboratory studies on the chemical reaction.