CAPSIZE: A personal computer program and cross-section library for determining the shielding requirements, size, and capacity of shipping casks subject to various proposed objectives

Technical Report · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1987

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6448036· OSTI ID:6448036

Bucholz, J A

A new interactive program called CAPSIZE has been written for the IBM-PC to rapidly determine the likely impact that proposed design objectives might have on the size and capacity of spent fuel shipping casks designed to meet those objectives. Given the burnup of the spent fuel, its cooling time, the thickness of the internal basket walls, the desired external dose rate, and the nominal weight limit of the loaded cask, the CAPSIZE program will determine the maximum number of PWR fuel assemblies that may be shipped in a lead-, steel-, or uranium-shielded cask meeting those objectives. The necessary neutron and gamma shield thicknesses are determined by the program in such a way as to meet the specified external dose rate while simultaneously minimizing the overall weight of the loaded cask. The one-group cross-section library used in the CAPSIZE program has been distilled from the intermediate results of several hundred 1-D multigroaup discrete ordinates calculations for different types of casks. Neutron and gamma source terms, as well as the decay heat terms, are based on ORIGEN-S analyses of PWR fuel assemblies having exposures of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 gigawatt days per metric tonne of initial heavy metal (GWD/MTIHM). In each case, values have been tabulated at 17 different decay times between 120 days and 25 years. Other features of the CAPSIZE program include a steady-state heat transfer calculation which will minimize the size and weight of external cooling fins, if and when such fins are required. Comparisons with previously reported results show that the CAPSIZE program can generally estimate the necessary neutron and gamma shield thicknesses to within 0.16 in. and 0.08 in., respectively. The corresponding cask weights have generally been found to be within 1000 lbs of previously reported results. 13 refs., 20 figs., 54 tabs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 6448036
• Report Number(s): ORNL/CSD/TM-248; ON: DE87013188
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050900* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
C CODES
CASKS
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
COMPUTER CODES
CONTAINERS
DESIGN
ENERGY SOURCES
FUELS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
MATERIALS
MINIMIZATION
NUCLEAR FUELS
O CODES
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR MATERIALS
SHIELDING
SPENT FUELS
TIME DEPENDENCE
WASTES
WEIGHT