Shielding and criticality analyses of phase I reference truck and rail cask designs for spent nuclear fuel
Results are presented herein to determine the adequacy with respect to shielding regulations of reference designs for a truck cask containing 2 PWR or 5 BWR assemblies of standard burnup (45 GWd/MTU for PWR, 40 GWd/MTU for BWR) and 1 PWR assembly with extended burnup (55 GWd/MTU). The study also includes reference and modified rail cask designs with projected payloads of 8, 10, or 12 PWR assemblies. The burnup/age trends are analyzed in one dimension for both Pb and depleted uranium (DU) gamma-ray shields. The results of the two-dimensional shielding analysis uphold the one-dimensional results as being an appropriate means of studying the burnup/age trends for the truck cask. These results show that the reference design for the Pb-shield truck cask is inadequate for all cases considered, while the DU-shield truck cask is capable of carrying the desired payloads. The one-dimensional shielding analysis results for the reference Pb and DU rail casks indicate substantial margins exist in the side doses for reasonable burnup/age combinations. For a Pb-cask configuration, margins exist primarily for long-cooled (15 years) fuel. For the modified Pb and DU rail casks, the 2-m dose rates offer substantial margins below the regulatory limits for all burnup values considered provided the spent fuel has cooled for {>=}10 years. The modified Pb and DU casks yield essentially identical results and, hence, could be considered equivalent from a shielding perspective. The criticality analyses that were performed indicate that a truck basket can be designed to provide an adequate subcritical margin for 2 PWR assemblies enriched to 5 wt%. While the 10- and 12- assembly rail cask designs are very close to the regulatory limit of 0.95 for k{sub eff}, after accounting for a 0.01 {Delta}k bias and 2 standard deviations, the limit is exceeded by about 3%. It is believed that a combination of decreased enrichments and/or increased water gaps should allow these baskets to be acceptable.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (RW)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-96OR22464
- OSTI ID:
- 245571
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/TM--12395; ON: DE96011601
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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