Personal Ice Cooling System (PICS). Innovative technology summary report

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) continually seeks safer and more cost-effective remediation technologies for use in the decontamination and decommissioning (D and D) of nuclear facilities. To this end, the Deactivation and Decommissioning Focus Area (DDFA) of the DOE`s Office of Science and Technology sponsors Large-Scale Demonstration and Deployment Projects (LSDDPs) in which developers and vendors of improved or innovative technologies showcase products that are potentially beneficial to the DOE`s projects and to others in the D and D community. Benefits sought include decreased health and safety risks to personnel and the environment, increased productivity, and decreased cost of operation. As buildings are demolished as part of the DOE Fernald Environmental Management Project`s (FEMP`s) D and D Plan, many of the activities are performed in hot weather and usually require use of various types and layers of personal protective equipment (PPE). While PPE is designed to protect the worker from contamination, it also significantly compromises the body`s ability to cool itself, leading to potentially serious heat stress situations. This report describes a comparative demonstration between the methodology currently used for heat stress management (i.e., limited stay times and cool-down rooms) and an alternative personal ice cooling suit technology. The baseline methodology for heat stress management is limited stay times when working in hot conditions. The FEMP`s Safety Performance Requirements outline the procedures and stay times to be followed and consider the temperature of the working environment, work load, and the type and amount of PPE required for the job. While these common criteria for determining stay times, other sites may have different requirements. This demonstration investigates the feasibility of using the personal ice cooling suite as a tool for managing heat stress in workers at the FEMP. This report provides a comparative analysis of the productivity of work using the baseline heat stress management approach currently used at the FEMP and the innovative personal ice cooling suit technology