The Management of Nuclear Materials Includes

1
A Tutorial on Packaging and Transportation of Nucl
ear Materials Institute of Nuclear Materials
Management Packaging and Transportation Technical
Division
2
Tutorial Outline

• Introduction
• Packaging and Transportation Scope
• Regulatory Drivers
• Design Considerations
• Demonstration of Safety Regulatory
• Demonstration of Safety Extra-regulatory
• Security Considerations
• Risk Assessment and Routing
• Summary

3
Introduction

• Nuclear materials are used in
• Commercial applications
• Medical applications
• Industrial applications
• Defense applications
• Nuclear materials that are radioactive (i.e.,
  a regulatory threshold of activity) need to be
  packaged and transported in ways that protect
  both the public and the environment.

4
Packaging and Transportation Scope

• Annual shipments of radioactive materials are a
  small fraction of the
• total shipments of all hazardous materials
• 300 million shipments/year of all hazardous
  materials
• 3 million shipments/year of radioactive
  materials (lt1 high activity
• content)
• Due to strict regulatory requirements, the
• packaging and transport of radioactive materials
  has
• resulted in safe operations, even when off-normal
  events
• have occurred.

Spent Nuclear Fuel Transport Cask
5
Regulatory Drivers

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
  produces standards by which
• nuclear nations can define regulations for
  packaging and transportation of nuclear
• materials. U.S. regulations for packaging
  and transport of radioactive materials are
• harmonized with the IAEA standards to ensure
  consistency of application among nations.
• For example, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
  Commission (NRC) regulations are codified in the
• Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Part
  71 Packaging and
• Transportation of Radioactive Material.
• These regulations define the packaging and
  transportation performance criteria to ensure the
  safe transport of radioactive materials and spent
  nuclear fuel under
• Normal conditional of transport
• Hypothetical accident conditions of transport
• Type A packaging criteria are less stringent due
  to lower radioactivity content
• Type B packaging criteria are more stringent due
  to higher radioactivity content
• This graded approach is used to protect public
  health and the environment
• that is, higher levels of radioactivity
  result in more stringent packaging,
• storage, and transportation requirements.

6
Regulatory Drivers

• Normal Conditions of Transport (10 CFR 71.71)
  Tests Type A B Casks

• Tests conducted in sequence
• Water Spray
• 5 cm/hr for 1 hr
• Free drop
• 1.2 m (pkgs lt 5000 kg)
• Stacking (compression)
• 5 times the weight of
• package for 24 hours (pkgs lt 5000 kg)
• Penetration
• 6 kg steel cylinder (3.2 cm diameter)
• from 1 m

7
Regulatory Drivers

• Hypothetical Accident Conditions (10 CFR 71.73)
  Tests Type B casks

• Tests conducted in sequence, in the most
• damaging orientation
• Impacts (onto an unyielding target, in the most
  damaging attitude)
• 9 m drop of the package,
• 1 m drop of the package onto 15 cm steel bar
• Fire (fully engulfing for 30 min)
• 800oC minimum average temperature
• Water immersion
• 15 m, and 0.9 m if fissile, and
• 200 m for larger quantities of
• radioactive material

8
Design Considerations

• Transport casks are designed to address four
  principal safety
• functions
• Containment cask must contain contents during
  normal and accident conditions
• Shielding - cask must provide shielding from
  gamma and neutron radiation
• Criticality Control - cask must prevent a nuclear
  
• chain reaction
• Heat Dissipation - cask must dissipate heat
• from spent fuel assemblies

9
Demonstration of Safety Regulatory

• Drop Testing and Analysis to Demonstrate
  Containment
• For transport, highly radioactive payloads must
  demonstrate containment after being dropped from
  a height of 9m (30ft) onto an unyielding surface.
  This demonstration can be done either by
  physical testing, by analysis, or by
• a
  combination of testing and analysis.
  
  

Result This is a very
stringent criterion that results in maintaining
containment even under severe impact conditions
10
Demonstration of Safety Regulatory

• Thermal Testing and Analysis to Demonstrate
  Containment
• For transport, highly radioactive payloads must
  demonstrate containment after being subjected to
  an 800 C (1475 F) fire for 30 minutes. This
  demonstration can be done either via physical
  testing, by analysis, or by a combination of
  testing and analysis.

Result Similar to the drop test, this
thermal test criterion is very severe and
provides demonstration of containment,
particularly in the closure and seal region of
the packaging.
11
Demonstration of Safety Extra-regulatory

• Safety demonstrations have been conducted through
  testing and analyses to
• verify safety of the packaging under severe
  conditions that may not be
• bounded by the regulations.
• Mechanical Impacts
• A 22- ton cask on a flatbed semi-trailer
  crashed into a 690-ton concrete block at 135 kph
• (84 mph). The cask maintained its
  containment after the impact.

12
Demonstration of Safety Extra-regulatory

• Safety demonstrations have been conducted through
  testing and analyses to
• verify safety of the packaging under severe
  conditions that may not be
• bounded by the regulations.
• Mechanical Impacts
• A 25-ton cask on a semi-trailer was struck by a
  120-ton diesel locomotive traveling at 130 kph
  (81 mph). The cask maintained its containment
  after the impact.

13
Demonstration of Safety Extra-regulatory

• Safety demonstrations have been conducted through
  testing and analyses to
• verify safety of the packaging under severe
  conditions that may not be
• bounded by the regulations.
• Thermal Impact
• A transport cask was placed next to a natural
  gas rail tank car in a pool fire. The gas tank
  car exploded and threw the transport cask 10
  meters (30 ft.). There was no loss of
  containment
• as a result of this test.

Photos courtesy of the Bundesanstalt für
Materialforschung und Prüfung (BAM), Germany
14
Security Considerations

• Since 9/11, security considerations relative to
  the packaging, storage, and
• transportation of nuclear materials has taken on
  a sense of urgency. Testing and
• analyses have been conducted to estimate
  potential consequences from a
• sabotage event.
• Airplane Impact 2. Fuel Response to
  shaped-charge 3. Explosive Impact
• weapon

15
Routing and Risk Assessment

• Routing and Risk Assessment are integral parts of
  packaging and
• transportation program planning. These two
  activities provide a quantification of
• health and safety risk to specific transportation
  and storage activities and provide
• real access to direct communications with the
  public and concerned stakeholders.

16
Routing and Risk Assessment

• Routing analyses assess route characteristics, as
  well as population densities and
• population buffer zones along specific routes.
  These analyses provide data for
• input to risk assessments and provide information
  relative to the best routes for
• specific shipments.

Population data with Buffer Zone
example Milwaukee
Highway Route Example New York to Los Angeles
Rail Route Example New York to Los Angeles
Barge Route Example Pittsburgh to New Orleans
17
Routing and Risk Assessment

• With routing analyses and cask/fuel response to
  impact and thermal
• accident data, engineers can estimate risk
  consequences from specific
• shipping campaigns.

Gasses
Aerosolized particles
Large particles
Example Dispersal path of contaminant plume
following a transportation accident.
Example Quantity of contaminant material that
creates dose as a function of distance from
source for gasses, aerosolized particles and
large particles that settle quickly to the
ground.
18
Summary

• The packaging and transportation of nuclear
  material has been demonstrated to be safe and
  secure over the last five decades of experience.
  This exemplary safety record is based on
• a strict set of regulatory conditions that must
  be met,
• strong engineering bases through testing and
  analyses that verify that
• packaging designs meet the regulations,
• additional testing and analyses to demonstrate
  that packagings
• designed for safety also mitigate potential
  consequences resulting from
• terrorist attacks, and
• assessing and mitigating risks by analyzing
  routing alternatives.