Type B package for the transport of large medical and industrial sources
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- AREVA FEDERAL SERVICES
AREVA Federal Services LLC, under contract to the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Offsite Source Recovery Project, is developing a new Type B(U)-96 package for the transport of unwanted or abandoned high activity gamma and neutron radioactive sealed sources (sources). The sources were used primarily in medical or industrial devices, and are of domestic (USA) or foreign origin. To promote public safety and mitigate the possibility of loss or misuse, the Offsite Source Recovery Project is recovering and managing sources worldwide. The package, denoted the LANL-B, is designed to accommodate the sources within an internal gamma shield. The sources are located either in the IAEA's Long Term Storage Shield (LTSS), or within intact medical or industrial irradiation devices. As the sources are already shielded separately, the package does not include any shielding of its own. A particular challenge in the design of the LANL-B has been weight. Since the LTSS shield weighs approximately 5,000 lb [2,270 kg], and the total package gross weight must be limited to 10,000 lb [4,540 kg], the net weight of the package was limited to 5,000 lb, for an efficiency of 50% (i.e., the payload weight is 50% of the gross weight of the package). This required implementation of a light-weight bell-jar concept, in which the containment takes the form of a vertical bell which is bolted to a base. A single impact limiter is used on the bottom, to protect the elastomer seals and bolted joint. A top-end impact is mitigated by the deformation of a tori spherically-shaped head. Impacts in various orientations on the bottom end are mitigated by a cylindrical, polyurethane foam-filled impact limiter. Internally, energy is absorbed using honeycomb blocks at each end, which fill the torispherical head volumes. As many of the sources are considered to be in normal form, the LANL-B package offers leak-tight containment using an elastomer seal at the joint between the bell and the base, as well as on the single vent port. Leak testing prior to transport may be either using helium mass spectrometry or the pressure-rise concept.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 1033575
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-10-06239; LA-UR-10-6239; TRN: US1200579
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: PATRAM 2010 ; October 3, 2010 ; London SEI 7SR, UK
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
42 ENGINEERING
61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY
BOLTED JOINTS
CONTAINMENT
DEFORMATION
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
ELASTOMERS
HELIUM
IMPLEMENTATION
LEAK TESTING
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
NEUTRONS
PACKAGING
POLYURETHANES
SAFETY
SEALED SOURCES
SHIELDING
SHIELDS
STORAGE
TRANSPORT