TY - CONF A1 - Rolle, Annette A1 - Neumeyer, Tino A1 - Ballheimer, Viktor A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Investigations of Aged Metal Seals for Transport Package Safety Assessment N2 - Acceptable limits for activity release from transport casks for high-level radioactive material specified in the IAEA regulations must be kept by the integrity of cask body and the cask sealing system. BAM as the German competent authority for mechanical, thermal and containment assessment of packages liable for approval verifies the activity release compliance with the regulatory limits. One of the fundamental aspects in assessment is the specification of conservative package design leakage rates. To ensure the required package tightness for both, storage, and transport of the cask before and after storage usually metal seals of the Helicoflex® Type are used. Due to the long-term use the seal behavior is influenced by temperature and time. The mechanical and thermal loadings associated with the routine, normal and accident conditions of transport specified in the regulations can have a significant effect on the leak tightness of the sealing system. Whereas the safety for application of new, non- aged Helicoflex® seals is verified sufficiently, there are still technical data gaps concerning the efficiency of aged Helicoflex® seals. BAM performed experiments to learn more about the sealing efficiency of aged Helicoflex® seals with Aluminum and Silver outer jackets. The seals were compressed in test-flanges and for artificial ageing the complete flange systems were stored in an oven for several month at a high temperature. During the compression and decompression tests after the aging, load-deformation characteristics of the seals, and leakage rates were measured. With these tests a load situation was simulated, which can occur in the regulatory drop test of the cask: Under high impact loads the bolted lid can lift a little for a short moment, allowing a little movement of the seal, so that the contact area can change before compressing again. The poster presentation will show details about test conditions and first results. T2 - Interdisciplinary research symposium on the safety of nuclear disposal practices safeND2023 CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 13.09.2023 KW - Radioactive material KW - Sealing KW - Ageing KW - Leaktightnes PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-58436 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Neumann, Martin A1 - Gleim, Tobias A1 - Gradt, Thomas A1 - Wille, Frank T1 - Friction coefficients for wood-wood and wood-steel interfaces in impact limiters for transport casks N2 - Wood is widely used in impact limiters of transport casks for radioactive material. Encapsulated by an outer and inner steel structure, spruce wood is often applied in layers of alternating direction. The friction at the interfaces between these layers is of crucial importance for the impact and energy absorption e.g., at an accidental impact of a cask against a hard target. In order to get detailed information for corresponding numerical calculations, in this study the friction coefficient for the combinations wood-wood and wood-steel was measured in the temperature range between -40°C and 90°C according to the relevant stress conditions for such casks. Results show decreasing friction with increasing temperature, ranging from 0.43 at -40°C to 0.22 for 90°C for wood-steel combinations and from 0.3 at -40°C to 0.24 at 90°C to for a wood-wood combination. T2 - 20th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM 22) CY - Juan-les-Pins, France DA - 11.06.2023 KW - Wood KW - Friction KW - Transport cask PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57702 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schilling, O. A1 - Neumann, Martin A1 - Wolff, Dietmar A1 - Wille, Frank A1 - Darnstädt, A. T1 - System of Quality Assurance Measures in Manufacturing and Operation of Dual Purpose Casks for Spent Nuclear Fuel and High Level Waste in Germany N2 - German spent nuclear fuel and high level waste is stored in dry conditions in interim storage facilities until a final repository will be ready for operation in the future. Dual purpose casks are used for the packaging of the materials to ensure transportability at any time during long-term interim storage and fulfilling both requirements from interim storage as well as transport. Germany’s 2011 decision to phase out utilization of nuclear energy has led to a high demand for casks for decommissioning power plants as quickly as possible. Cask serial production will continue at a high level for the next few years. In the process, a system of quality assurance measures ensures that every cask reliably complies with design specification according the transport approval certificate and storage license. When the first casks were manufactured in Germany about 40 years ago, quality assurance was oriented towards pressure vessel and general nuclear manufacturing. The system was continuously adapted to the state of the art. In particular serial production, globalization of manufacturing and deep supplier chains had to be taken into account. The system of quality assurance measures applied today for cask manufacturing shall be presented here. The quality assurance measures can be categorized as system-related and design-related. With respect to transport regulations for example, they are independently approved and monitored by the competent authority BAM and its authorized inspection experts. The qualification of the applicant is reviewed first in the context of the design approval procedure and then periodically. The qualification of component and cask manufacturers is also checked at the start of manufacturing and then periodically. Before the start of manufacturing documents such as quality plans are pre-assessed. Manufacturing and inspection are then performed according to the pre-assessed documents. Cask manufacturing is completed by a final inspection before commissioning. Periodic inspections during operation ensure preservation of the properties specified in the approval certificate over package life time. The type and the time interval of periodic inspections depend on the use of the package. For transport after interim storage a system of specific tests and inspections is prescribed. T2 - 20th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials (PATRAM 22) CY - Juan-les-Pins, France DA - 11.06.2023 KW - Radioactive material KW - Quality Assurance Measures KW - Dual Purpose Casks KW - Independent Surveillance PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57705 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Musolff, Andre A1 - Feldkamp, Martin A1 - Quercetti, Thomas A1 - Nehrig, Marko A1 - Wille, Frank A1 - Êhrenberg, M. T1 - Fire Influence to Wood Filled Impact Limiters - Implications for the Package Design Safety Case N2 - Impact limiters with wooden components are widely used in the design of packages for transportation of radioactive material. In most designs, the wood is encapsulated with steel sheets. Impact limiters mainly determine the mechanical and thermal behaviour of the package in accident conditions of transport in accordance with the IAEA Regulations. In context with research and development for package design approval competence, the thermal behaviour of heavy-weight packages was investigated at BAM with an artificially pre-damaged generic impact limiter design. Within this first investigation, the pre-damaged impact limiter with a diameter of 2.3 meters was mounted on a water tank simulating the thermal capacity of a cask during the fire test. The water tank is part of a water circulating system built of several components such as pump, heater, cooler, sliding valve, flow meter, thermocouples and control unit in order to measure the heat flux. Furthermore, the investigations focus on the effects this additional heat generation would have on the cask and especially on the lid-closure system with the gasket. The results of these experiments could find consideration in the safety case of the transport packages of radioactive material using wood filled impact limiters. T2 - 20th International Symposium on the Packaging and Transportation of Radioactive Materials CY - Juan-les-Pins, France DA - 11.06.2023 KW - Fire test KW - Impact limiter KW - Mechanical and thermal behaviour PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57719 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -