Technical Issue Resolution Associated with Spent-Fuel Cask Development

Conference · Sun Nov 10 04:00:00 EST 1991 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:7067045

Lake, W. H.; Sanders, T. L.

The US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) is in the process of developing a new generation of high-capacity casks to transport spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactor facilities to federal waste facilities. The DOE's role in the Federal Waste Management System is defined in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) and its 1987 amendment (NWPAA). The NWPAA requires DOE to use spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste casks certified by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Because of the high shipping rates anticipated and since cooling times of spent fuel that will be shipped exceed the design cooling times of existing casks, a decision was made to develop new casks. In evaluating the needs of the cask development program, a number of technical issues were identified. Some of these broad technical issues were expected to affect a number of cask designs; therefore, a decision was made to address these broad technical issues separately from the cask design effort. Sandia National Laboratories was chosen to conduct these technical issue resolution activities for OCRWM. Three specific examples of technical issues currently being pursued are addressed in this paper:(1) burnup credit; (2) containment source term evaluation; and (3) weeping.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• OSTI ID: 7067045
• Report Number(s): CONF-911107--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Journal Volume: 64
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050900* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
42 ENGINEERING
420203 -- Engineering-- Handling Equipment & Procedures
420204 -- Engineering-- Shipping Containers
ACCIDENTS
BURNUP
Burnup credit
CASKS
CERTIFICATION
CLEANING
CONTAINERS
CONTAINMENT
CONTAMINATION
CRITICALITY
Containment Source Term Evaluation
DECONTAMINATION
DESIGN
ENERGY SOURCES
FUELS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR FUELS
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA)
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM)
PLANNING
RADIATION ACCIDENTS
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR MATERIALS
REGULATIONS
SANDIA LABORATORIES
SOURCE TERMS
SPENT FUEL CASKS
SPENT FUELS
SURFACE CONTAMINATION
TRANSPORT
Technical Issues
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US NRC
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
Weeping