Opportunities to increase the productivity of spent fuel shipping casks in the United States
Trends indicate that future transportation requirements for spent fuel will be different from those anticipated when the current generation of casks and vehicles was designed. Increased storage capacity at most reactors will increase the average post irradiation age of the spent fuel to be transported. A scenario is presented which shows the 18 casks currently available should be sufficient until approximately 1983. Beyond this time, it appears that an adequate transportation system can be maintained by acquiring, as needed, casks of current designs and new casks currently under development. Spent fuel transportation requirements in the post-1990 period can be met by a new generation of casks specifically designed to transport long-cooled fuel. In terms of the number of casks needed, productivity may be increased by 19% if rail cask turnaround time is reduced to 4 days from the current range of 6.5 to 8.5 days. Productivity defined as payloads per cask year could be increased 62% if the turnaround time for legal weight truck casks were reduced from 12 hours to 4 hours. On a similar basis, overweight truck casks show a 28% increase in productivity.
- Research Organization:
- Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 5116249
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-3017; TTC-0078; TRN: 80-016590
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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