Reply #9: You've got a couple gross exaggerations there.

[TheWraith]

"Burn that material and get Tritiated water which can be metabolized and cause havoc."

Only in massive quantity. Even the WHO restrictions on tritium in water, which are about as lose as you get in the west, you're talking about 54 millirem per year.

"Fighting a fire of this material would be similar to one where a thermonuclear weapon is burning."

No. Not even close. You're talking about a small quanity of beta-emitting gas versus a large load of fissionable material. All the tritium production in the world for a year masses less--a lot less--than the fissionable material in one warhead. Realistically, it wouldn't be any more or less dangerous than a regular petrochemical-fed fire.