Going the Distance? NRC's Response to the National Academy of Science's Transportation Study
- United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
In February 2006, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) published the results of a 3 1/2-year study, titled Going the Distance, that examined the safety of transporting spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high level waste (HLW) in the United States. NAS initiated this study to address what it perceived to be a national need for an independent, objective, and authoritative analysis of SNF and HLW transport in the United States. The study was co-sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the Electric Power Research Institute and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. This paper addresses some of the recommendations made in the NAS study related to the performance of SNF transportation casks in long duration fires, the use of full-scale package testing, and the need for an independent review of transportation security prior to the commencement of large scale shipping campaigns to an interim storage site or geologic repository. In conclusion: The NRC believes that the current regulations in 10 CFR Part 71 for the design of SNF and HLW transportation packages provide a very high level of protection to the public for very severe accidents and credible threat scenarios. As recommended by the NAS study, additional studies of accidents involving severe fires have been completed. These studies have confirmed that spent fuel casks would be expected to withstand very severe fires without the release of any fission products from the spent fuel. Additionally, changes in rail operating procedures such as the use of dedicated trains and prohibition on the co-location of SNF and flammable liquids in rail tunnels can further reduce the already low probability of severe rail accident fires involving SNF and HLW. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9 - 332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21326178
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-10-WM-08491; TRN: US10V0653067543
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM'08: Waste Management Symposium 2008 - HLW, TRU, LLW/ILW, Mixed, Hazardous Wastes and Environmental Management - Phoenix Rising: Moving Forward in Waste Management, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 24-28 Feb 2008; Other Information: Country of input: France; 6 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Reviewing Spent Nuclear Fuel Dry Cask Storage Programs to Identify Challenges for an Integrated Waste Management System - 17535
Parametric Study of the Effect of Burnable Poison Rods for PWR Burnup Credit