The MacArthur Maze Fire and Roadway Collapse: A "Worst Case Scenario" for Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation?

Conference · Fri Jul 06 00:00:00 EDT 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1115/PVP2012-78637· OSTI ID:1126373

Bajwa, Christopher S.; Easton, Earl P.; Adkins, Harold E.; Cuta, Judith M.; Klymyshyn, Nicholas A.; Suffield, Sarah R.

In 2007, a severe transportation accident occurred near Oakland, California, at the interchange known as the "MacArthur Maze." The accident involved a double tanker truck of gasoline overturning and bursting into flames. The subsequent fire reduced the strength of the supporting steel structure of an overhead interstate roadway causing the collapse of portions of that overpass onto the lower roadway in less than 20 minutes. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has analyzed what might have happened had a spent nuclear fuel transportation package been involved in this accident, to determine if there are any potential regulatory implications of this accident to the safe transport of spent nuclear fuel in the United States. This paper provides a summary of this effort, presents preliminary results and conclusions, and discusses future work related to the NRC's analysis of the consequences of this type of severe accident.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1126373
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-88983; 401001050
• Resource Relation: Conference: ASME 2012 Pressure Vessels and Piping Division Conference (PVP 2012), July 15-19, 2012, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 7:261-269
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English