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Engineering and operational capability have been established within the United States to support RD-180 use on the Atlas V launch vehicle under a joint program involving Lockheed Martin, RD AMROSS, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and NPO Energomash. The newly established engineering capabilities provide the Atlas V team the ability to supplement and complement NPO Energomash technical contributions with U.S. expertise. Additionally, U.S. operational capabilities have been established to support nominal engine and launch vehicle operations in the unlikely event NPO Energomash were unable to provide their normal level of on-site support. The successful implementation of these capabilities by the Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne team provides Atlas V customers increased confidence in Assured Access to Space while expediting technical and programmatic solutions for maintaining 100% Mission Success.

The purpose of this work is to examine the environmental, safety, health and operational aspects of detonating a confined explosive test apparatus that has been designed to maximize the dynamics of impact on beryllium metal components for Contained Firing Facility (CFF) applications. A combination of experimental collection and evaluation methods were designed and implemented to provide an evaluation of immediately postdetonation by-products reflecting a potential worst-case scenario beryllium aerosolization explosive event. The collective Material Evaluation Test Series (METS) 04 -06 provided explosive devices designed to scale for the dedicated METS firing tank that would provide a post-detonation internal environment comparable to the CFF. The experimental results provided appropriate information to develop operational parameters to be considered for conducting full-scale beryllium-containing experimental tests with similar designs within CFF and B801A. These operational procedures include the inclusion of chelating agents in pre-shot CFF cardboard containers with a minimum of 600 gallons content, an extended time period post-test before purging the CFF chamber, and an adaptation of approaches toward applications of the scrubber and HEPA systems during the post-shot sequence for an integrated environmental, safety, and health approach. In addition, re-entry and film retrieval procedures will be adapted, in line with abatement techniques for cleaning the chamber, that will be required for work inside a CFF that will contain an elevated concentration of spherical and highly aerosolizable beryllium particulate.

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