Shielding methods for evaluating the versatility of proposed shipping casks

Conference · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987 · Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5723625

Bucholz, J A

After a shipping cask has been designed for a certain type of spent fuel, the number of assemblies it can carry is fixed, as are the thicknesses of the various steel shells, the neutron shield, and the gamma shield. The question then becomes What other types of spent fuel may be shipped in the cask. Using the same neutron and gamma source terms, miscellaneous correlations, and one-group cross sections found in the Capsize program, a fast new interactive shielding program called KWIKDOSE has been written for the IBM-PC, which computed and displays a two-dimensional table showing the total dose rate 10 ft from the centerline of a cask as a function of the spent fuel's burnup and cooling time. The paper shows some of the results corresponding to a hypothetical cask containing 21 pressurized water reactor (PWR) assemblies in a 143.6-cm-diam cavity, surrounded by a 3.81-cm-thick steel shell, a 10.08-cm lead gamma shield, a 5.08-cm steel shell, a 10.49-cm neutron shield, and a 1.91-cm-thick outer steel barrel. Although approximate and subject to certain caveats, this type of information is useful in estimating what types of fuel may or may not be shipped in a particular cask. The most obvious limitation of the KWIKDOSE program is that it always assumes the neutron shield to be one-third water and two-thirds ethylene glycol, containing a total of 1% natural boron by weight.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN
• OSTI ID: 5723625
• Report Number(s): CONF-870601-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc.; (United States) Journal Volume: 54
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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BORON
C CODES
CASKS
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONTAINERS
DESIGN
DOSES
ELEMENTS
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
GROUP THEORY
K CODES
MATHEMATICS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
RADIATION DOSES
REACTORS
SEMIMETALS
SHIELDING
SIMULATION
SOURCE TERMS
SPENT FUEL CASKS
STANDARDIZATION
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS