Safety case for transporting spent nuclear fuel

Abstract

The transportation safety case for transporting spent nuclear fuel is a requirement for licensing. It has both qualitative and semiquantitative aspects. The qualitative aspects include transportation regulations, radiation dose limits, role of the transportation package in transportation, transportation package certification process, training, emergency response, the performance of the transportation package in accidents and the evaluation of past transportation accidents. The quantitative aspects support the qualitative descriptions. Radiation doses accrued by members of the public and by workers are calculated using the code RADTRAN. Dose from both routine, incident free highway transportation and from highway transportation accidents are part of the safety case and will be compared with both background doses and the regulatory safety criteria. The radiation doses from routine transportation are calculated for the following: the maximally exposed member of the public, doses to vehicle escorts and doses to vehicle crew. Collective doses to populations are calculated for representative routes. Collective dose depends on the number of people affected as well as on the extent of the radiation from the source to which reference groups are exposed. Accidents involving loss of gamma shielding and loss of confinement integrity are discussed, as are accidents in which there is no impact on the cargo.

Keywords:

• Transport safety assessment
• Spent fuel transport
• RADTRAN
• Radiation dose
• Collective dose

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr R. Weiner, Sandia National Laboratories, for the training, guidance and support, and the US Department of State for funding the presenter’s attendance to IRPA.