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Modeling Analysis for Nuclear Material Transport Package

Journal Article · · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society
OSTI ID:23042869
 [1]
  1. Savannah River National Laboratory Aiken, SC 29808 (United States)
This paper describes the computational models for the thermal analyses for 9975 nuclear material package under the Normal Conditions of Transport (NCT) and the Hypothetical Accident Conditions (HAC). The package 9975 is a DOE certified package that has been used in the DOE complex for transportation and long term storage of radioactive material. The NCT and HAC thermal analyses for the 9975 package were performed here by taking a computational heat transfer method. The HAC thermal models described here are identical to the models in the current DOE certified 9975 package. Thermal models in this work are for an undamaged package to meet all the regulatory requirements during an HAC thermal event. The model was created using modified shielding where the lead was encapsulated in a 0.036 inches stainless steel casing. The impact of this casing was studied earlier when the modification was proposed and it was found to have minimal impact on the component temperatures. Therefore, the analyses in this paper are good for packages with or without the shielding modifications. Analytical studies show that the realistic value for the solar absorptivity for the stainless steel surface fabricated from the rolling operation is about 0.5. The NCT analyses documented in this report use an absorptivity value of 0.5 to get more realistic component temperature results. Sensitivity studies were also performed to assess the impact of variability in the solar absorptivity for drum surface in the previous work for the NRC certification. The analysis in this paper is based on PuO{sub 2} in a food can. The food can is considered uncredited convenience containers inside the Primary Containment Vessel (PCV) of the 9975 package. PCV is located inside Secondary Containment Vessel (SCV). PuO{sub 2} has a density of 2 g/cc and a heat generation rate of 19 watts. This calculation evaluates the thermal performance for 9975 package with food can configuration during NCT and HAC per NRC regulations in 10 CFR Part 71. The objective of the calculation is to demonstrate that the maximum component temperatures are below their design limits. (authors)
OSTI ID:
23042869
Journal Information:
Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 115; ISSN 0003-018X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English