NRC's response to the National Academy of Science's transportation study: going the distance?

Abstract

In February 2006, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) published the results of a 3˙5-year study, titled Going the Distance, which examined the safety of transporting spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high level waste (HLW) in the United States. NAS initiated this study to address what it perceived to be a national need for an independent, objective and authoritative analysis of SNF and HLW transport in the United States. The study was cosponsored by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the US Department of Energy, the US Department of Transportation, the Electric Power Research Institute and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. This paper addresses some of the recommendations made in the NAS study related to the performance of SNF transportation packages in long duration fires, the use of full scale package testing, and the need for an independent review of transportation security prior to the commencement of large scale shipping campaigns to an interim storage site or geologic repository.

Keywords:

• SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL
• HIGH LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE
• TRANSPORTATION
• RAIL
• US NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
• NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES