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Die IAEA Transportempfehlungen stellen die Basis der sicherheitstechnischen Anforderungen von Behältern zum Transport radioaktiver Stoffe dar. Sie gelten als international harmonsiert und werden regelmäßig an den Stand von Wissenschaft und Technik angepasst. Der laufende Revisionsprozess berücksichtigt mehr als 150 Vorschläge zur Weiterentwicklung des Regelwerks. Wesentliche Themen, die für die hoheitlichen Prüfungen im Zuständigkeitsbereich der BAM eine Rolle spielen, werden im Vortrag vorgestellt. Das Implementieren der besonderen sicherheitstechnischen Anforderungen an Zwischenlagerbehälter werden im Detail behandelt. Ebenfalls von Interesse ist die Weiterenticklung der Anforderungen, die den Einfluss des radioaktiven Inventars auf das Verschlusssystem bei Fallprüfungen diskutiert.
Packages for the transport of radioactive material are often equipped with impact limiters consisting of wood, encapsulated by steel sheets. These impact limiters shall ensure that the transport casks meet the mechanical and thermal IAEA regulatory test requirements. According to the accident conditions of transport it is mandatory to expose the specimens to a cumulative effect by mechanical and thermal impacts. The mechanical tests consist of a free drop from 9 m onto a flat unyielding target and a 1 m drop onto a puncture bar. After damage caused by mechanical test sequences the package has to withstand a severe fire scenario. Corresponding to the IAEA advisory material it is required that the impact attitudes for the 9 m drop test and for the puncture test have to be such as to produce maximum damage, taking into account the thermal test. Moreover, any damage, which would give rise to increased radiation or loss of containment or affect the confinement system after the thermal test, should be considered. During and following the thermal test, the specimen shall not be artificially cooled and any combustion of materials of the package shall be permitted to proceed naturally. Different works from the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) and BAM show that additional energy supply from a pre-damaged impact limiter to the cask could occur. This effect should be considered within the safety assessment of the containment. Thermal effects at the closure system of the cask, which might result in an elevated activity release, have to be excluded. BAM conducted small scale tests with wood filled metal buckets showing continuing combustion processes during the cooling down phase. These test results are presented. As not much is known about smouldering processes in wood filled impact limiters, it is highly complex to define pre-damage of impact limiters, which are conservative, regarding the maximum damaging energy flow from the impact limiter to the containment system. More research has to be done to develop models to examine the effects of smouldering impact limiters on the containment of packages for the transport of radioactive material. Aspects of assessment and its difficulties are shown. BAM as a competent authority for the approval of transport casks for radioactive material in Germany operates the test facilities to examine the issue of mechanical damage, combustion and heat transfer for such kind of package systems. For this purpose the knowledge from real drop tests with casks of a mass partly over 100 tons was transferred to a test application. A thermal test will take place with a wood filled test specimen with a diameter of about 2.3 meters. The aim is to understand the phenomena of smouldering under the consideration of relevant regulatory boundary conditions. The process of smouldering is described with regard to the requirements in the thermal assessment of safety of packages for the transport of radioactive material. Requirements concerning the pre-damage of packages for the maximum damage of impact limiters are discussed. Parameters influencing the smouldering process are identified.
Accident safe packages for the transport of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste shall fulfil international IAEA safety requirements. Compliance is shown by consecutive mechanical and thermal testing. Additional numerical analysis are usually part of the safety evaluation. For damage protection some package designs are equipped with wood filled impact limiters encapsulated by steel sheets. The safety of these packages is established in compliance with IAEA regulations. Cumulative mechanical and fire tests are conducted to achieve safety standards and to prevent loss of containment. Mechanical reliability is proven by drop tests. Drop testing might cause significant damage of the impact limiter steel sheets and might enable sufficient oxygen supply to the impact limiter during the fire test to ignite the wood filling. The boundary conditions of the fire test are precisely described in the IAEA regulatory. During the test the impact limiter will be subjected to a 30 minute enduring fire phase. Subsequent to the fire phase any burning of the specimen has to extinguish naturally and no artificial cooling is allowed. At BAM a large-scale fire test with a real size impact limiter and a wood volume of about 3m³ was conducted to investigate the burning behaviour of wood filled impact limiters in steel sheet encapsulation. The impact limiter was equipped with extensive temperature monitoring equipment. Until today burning of such impact limiters is not sufficiently considered in transport package design and more investigation is necessary to explore the consequences of the impacting fire. The objective of the large scale test was to find out whether a self-sustaining smouldering or even a flaming fire inside the impact limiter was initiated and what impact on the cask is resulting. The amount of energy, transferred from the impact limiter into the cask is of particular importance for the safety of heavy weight packages. With the intention of heat flux quantification a new approach was made and a test bench was designed.
Accident safe packages for the transport of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste shall fulfil international IAEA safety requirements. Compliance is shown by consecutive mechanical and thermal testing. Additional numerical analysis are usually part of the safety evaluation. For damage protection some package designs are equipped with wood filled impact limiters encapsulated by steel sheets. The safety of these packages is established in compliance with IAEA regulations. Cumulative mechanical and fire tests are conducted to achieve safety standards and to prevent loss of containment. Mechanical reliability is proven by drop tests. Drop testing might cause significant damage of the impact limiter steel sheets and might enable sufficient oxygen supply to the impact limiter during the fire test to ignite the wood filling. The boundary conditions of the fire test are precisely described in the IAEA regulatory. During the test the impact limiter will be subjected to a 30 minute enduring fire phase. Subsequent to the fire phase any burning of the specimen has to extinguish naturally and no artificial cooling is allowed. At BAM a large-scale fire test with a real size impact limiter and a wood volume of about 3m³ was conducted to investigate the burning behaviour of wood filled impact limiters in steel sheet encapsulation. The impact limiter was equipped with extensive temperature monitoring equipment. Until today burning of such impact limiters is not sufficiently considered in transport package design and more investigation is necessary to explore the consequences of the impacting fire. The objective of the large scale test was to find out whether a self-sustaining smouldering or even a flaming fire inside the impact limiter was initiated and what impact on the cask is resulting. The amount of energy, transferred from the impact limiter into the cask is of particular importance for the safety of heavy weight packages. With the intention of heat flux quantification a new approach was made and a test bench was designed. A first computational simulation of transport package temperatures taking into account the results of the conducted fire test was performed.
German packages for the transport of spent nuclear fuel are assessed with respect to specific transport conditions which are defined in the safety regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency. In general, gastight fuel rods constitute the first barrier of the containment system. The physical state of the spent fuel and the fuel rod cladding as well as the geometric configuration of the fuel assemblies are important inputs for the evaluation of the package safety under transport conditions. The objective of this paper is to discuss the methodologies accepted by German authority BAM for the evaluation of spent fuel behavior within the package design approval procedure. Specific test conditions will be analyzed with regard to assumptions to be used in the activity release and criticality safety analysis. In particular the different failure modes of the fuel rods, which can cause release of gas, volatiles, fuel particles or fragments, have to be properly considered in these assumptions. The package as a mechanical system is characterized by a complex set of interactions, e.g. between the fuel rods within the assembly as well as between the fuel assemblies, the basket, and the cask containment. This complexity together with the limited knowledge about the material properties and the variation of the fuel assemblies regarding cladding material, burn-up and the operation history makes an exact mechanical analysis of the fuel rods nearly impossible. The application of sophisticated numerical models requires extensive experimental data for model verification, which are in general not available. The gaps in information concerning the material properties of cladding and pellets, especially for the high burn-up fuel, make the analysis more complicated additionally, and require a conservative approach. In this context some practical approaches based on experiences by BAM within safety assessment of packages for transport of spent fuel will be discussed. Ongoing research activities to investigate SNF mechanical behavior in view of gas and fissile material release under transport loads are presented.
Packages for the transport and storage of radioactive materials are often sealed with elastomer or metal seals. These seals are basic components to meet the leak tightness criteria for these kind of packages. An overview over ongoing research and development concerning metal and elastomer seals is given in the presentation. Introductions in the fundamental functionality of elastomer and metal seals are presented. Ageing processes are shown for both components regarding to different ageing effects.
The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) is assessing the mechanical and thermal safety performance of packages for the transport of radioactive materials. Drop testing and numerical calculations are usually part of the safety case concepts, where BAM is performing the regulatory tests at their own test facility site.
Among other mechanical tests the 1 meter drop onto a steel puncture bar shall be considered for accident safe packages. According to the IAEA regulations “the bar shall be of solid mild steel of circular section, 15.0 ± 0.5 cm in diameter and 20 cm long, unless a longer bar would cause greater damage…”.
Particularly with regard to the German transport- and storage cask designs, often made from ductile cast iron, an accurate determination of the puncture bar length to guarantee a load impact covering the worst case scenario can be imperative. If the fracture mechanical proof for the cask material shall be provided by a test, small deviations in the concentrated load applied can be decisive for the question if the cask fails or not.
The most damaging puncture bar length can be estimated by iterative procedure in numerical simulations. On the one hand, a sufficient puncture bar length shall guarantee that shock absorbers or other attachments do not prevent or reduce the local load application to the package, on the other hand, a longer and thus less stiff bar causes a smaller maximum contact force. The contrary influence of increasing puncture bar length and increasing effective drop height shall be taken into account if a shock absorber is directly placed in the target area. The paper presents a numerical approach to identify the bar length that causes maximum damage to the package. Using the example of two typical package masses the sensitivity of contact forces and puncture bar deformations to the initial length are calculated and assessed with regard to the international IAEA package safety requirements.
In order to investigate the heat fluxes over a wide range of surface temperatures during a propane gas fire test and to get information about local fire impact a fire reference package, representing the outer geometry of a specific type of transport cask for radioactive waste, was designed. A closed steel sheet cylinder with a wall thickness of 10 mm was chosen as fire reference package. The cylinder was filled with refractory insulation material and instrumented with thermocouples distributed all over the cylinder. The local steel sheet temperatures measured allow the determination of local as well as global heat fluxes as a function of time and surface temperature.
With this fire reference package three open-air propane gas fire tests were performed at BAM’s open air fire test stand. The flame exposure time period was changed for the different fire tests. Furthermore, the wind conditions changed between and during the tests. Test stand parameters like wind shield location and propane gas volume flow were chosen constant for the three tests. The test results were used to determine the changes of heat flux into the fire reference package in relation to the package surface temperature. This data also allows the calculation of local characteristics of the propane gas fire as there are the flame temperature, the fire convection coefficient and the radiation exchange coefficient in a first approach. The recently conducted tests provide an initial picture of local fire characteristics of the propane gas fire test facility. The test shows that the propane gas fire covers the IAEA-fire over a wide range of surface temperatures with the chosen test stand parameters.
Outcomes of Three Large-Scale Fire Reference Tests Conducted in Propane Gas Fire Test Facility
(2020)
Packages for the transport of high-level radioactive material are designed to withstand severe accidents. Hypothetical severe accident conditions are defined in the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Materials. One of these accident conditions is the thermal test, mainly consisting of a 30 minute fully engulfing 800°C pool fire or an equally severe fire test. The heat fluxes into the package depend substantially on the fire characteristics and the surface temperature of the package. Fire tests can be performed at BAM on a propane gas fire test facility. In order to investigate the heat fluxes over a wide range of surface temperatures in this test facility a fire reference package was designed for multiple use. The package represented the outer geometry of a specific transport cask for radioactive waste. The fire reference package is a closed steel sheet cylinder with a wall thickness of 10 mm, a length of 1500 mm and a diameter of 1050 mm. The package was instrumented with thermocouples and filled with heat resistant insulation material. Three open-air fire tests were performed in the BAM propane gas fire test facility. The flames exposure time period varied slightly for the fire tests. The wind direction as well as the wind speed were measured and changed between and during the tests. Test stand parameters such as wind shield location and propane gas volume flow were chosen constant for the three tests. The locally measured fire reference package steel sheet temperatures were used for the calculation of heat fluxes as function of time and surface temperature. The measured temperatures allowed further calculations. In a first approach effective fire characteristics of the propane gas fire, including the flame temperature, the fire convection coefficient and a radiation exchange coefficient mathematically describing the determined average heat flux over the surface temperature were calculated.
Investigation of the internal impact during a 9 m drop test of an accident-safe waste package
(2021)
The safety assessment of packages for the transport of radioactive material follows the IAEA regulations and guidance. The specified regulatory tests cover severe accidents and demonstrate the package containment system integrity. Special attention must be drawn to the behaviour of the content which could move inside the package due to unpreventable gaps caused by the loading procedure and the structure of the content. A possible internal impact of the content which occurs during the drop tests onto the lid system is investigated. The IAEA regulations SSR-6 and the Guidance SSG-26, revised recently, consider input from Germany and France related to the significance of internal gaps.
In the context of a waste package design assessment, a model was equipped with a representative content to conduct a drop test with an internal impact. The weight and kinetic impact of this content covered all possible real contents. The objective of the test was to maximize the load onto the lid system and to prove the mechanical integrity by complying with the required leak tightness. The test was conducted conservatively at a package temperature lower than -40 °C at the BAM Test Site Technical Safety.
This paper gives an overview of efforts to address internal gaps and their consequences, and the BAM efforts with the implementation of this topic into IAEA regulations and guidance material. The paper then focuses on the conduction of a drop test and investigation of internal component impact.