3.3 Sicherheit von Transportbehältern
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- Transport packages (2)
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- Accident Conditions of Transport (1)
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- Lowlevel midlevel radioactive waste (1)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
The mechanical and thermal loadings associated with the routine, normal and accident conditions of transport can have a significant effect on the leak tightness of the containment system of transport casks for spent fuel and high radioactive waste. The containment systems of such transport casks usually include bolted lids with metallic or elastomeric seals.
Scaled cask models are often used for providing the required mechanical and thermal tests series. Leak tests have been conducted on those models.
It is common practice to use scaled component tests to investigate the influence of deformations or displacements of the lids and the seals on the standard leakage rate as well as to study the temperature and time depending alteration of the seals.
In this paper questions and open points of the transferability of scaled test results to the fullscale design of the containment system will be discussed.
Packages for the transport of radioactive material are often equipped with impact limiters consisting of wood. Mostly this wood is encapsulated by steel sheets. The impact limiters are needed to ensure that the transport casks meet the IAEA safety requirements. According to the IAEA safety requirements a package has to withstand consecutively severe mechanical tests followed by a thermal test. The mechanical tests have to produce maximum damage concerning the thermal test. Following this, the impact limiters may have serious pre-damage when the thermal tests begins. The IAEA safety requirements state that during and following the fire test, the specimen shall not be artificially cooled and any combustion of materials of the package shall be permitted to proceed naturally.
Small scale fire tests with wood filled metal drums by BAM and works of the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) showed that pre-damaged steel encapsulated wooden structures could start smoldering initiated by the thermal test. These processes supply additional energy to the cask which should be considered within the safety assessment of the package.
As not much is known about smoldering processes in encapsulated wooden structures with a reduced oxygen supply the need for a test was identified. To investigate the influence of a smoldering impact limiter concerning the amount of energy supplied to the cask in dependence of the time BAM conducted a large scale impact limiter thermal test. For that, a pre-damaged impact limiter with a diameter of 2,3 m was mounted on a water tank simulating a cask. A complex system of a regulated pump, a heater, a cooler, a slide valve, a flow meter and numerous thermocouples were installed and connected to a control unit to ensure all needed operating conditions.
After a pre-heating compared to typical SNF decay-heat, the 30 min lasting fire phase of the thermal test was started. After that, the expected and initiated smoldering began. The results of the large scale test are presented in this poster. Systematic small scale tests will follow to identify the influence of different parameters, e.g. moisture content and scale effects. The tests took place at BAM Test Site for Technical Safety (TTS) with its various possibilities for mechanical and thermal tests. The results of these tests will have direct influence in the safety assessment of transport cask for the transport of radioactive material.
Assessment of Quality Management for Transport Packages not requiring Authority Design Approval
(2018)
The poster presents the german approach for the assessment of quality management systems for transport packages for radioactive material not requiring authority design approval. As legal basis the IAEA regulations, the ADR as well as the GGVSEB are highlighted and examples for these transport packages are given. The GGR 016 is mentioned, main duties and responsibilities as well as the manufacturing and quality surveillance system are described.
BAM is the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing and the competent authority for mechanical and thermal safety assessment of transport packages for spent fuel and high level waste. In context with safety assessment of RAM packages BAM performed numerous drop tests in the last decades. The tests were mostly accompanied by extensive and various measurement techniques especially by instrumented measurements with strain gages and accelerometers.
The procedure of drop testing and the resulting measurement analysis are the main methods to evaluate the safety against mechanical test conditions. Measurement techniques are dedicated to answer questions in regard to the structural integrity of a RAM package, the mechanical behavior of the prototype as well as of its content under impact conditions.
Test results like deceleration-time functions constitute a main basis for the validation of assumptions in the safety analysis and for the evaluation of numerical calculations. In this context the adequate selection of accelerometers and measurement systems for the performance of drop tests is important. Therefore it is not only necessary to find suitable positions for the accelerometers at the test specimens, but also to consider technical boundary conditions as e.g. temperature.
For transport operations according IAEA regulations SSR-6, the package shall be securely stowed and the package shall be capable to withstand specific effects, e.g. accelerations, during routine transport conditions. The supporting IAEA Advisory Material SSG-26 provides information how to do that. General information and detailed load factors for use in safety demonstrations are provided.
Up to now package designers in different countries use other load factors for the design of attachment points than those specified in the IAEA guidance material. In particular the acceleration factors vary between different countries and lead to difficulties during the validation of foreign approval certificates. The background of the existing guidance including specified load values was not clear enough. The application of specified values and the boundary conditions, i.e. transport conditions, seemed to be improvable.
The IAEA started a discussion process to review the existing guidance text. An international working group was constituted in 2013. Representatives came from different stakeholders, e.g. transport operators, competent authorities and modal organizations. The discussions concluded especially on the transport conditions which has to be considered for stowage design, including on the one hand the relevance of the load factors used for strength and fatigue analysis and, on the other hand the criteria which have to be considered for the attachment points. In addition, complementary questions relative to the operational aspects were discussed. Revised load values for different transport modes were proposed. The values are derived from standards and include safety factors now.
As a result of those discussions, the international working group wrote new guidance material for stowage in transport, addressing all the previously quoted topics.
Transport and storage containers for low and midlevel radioactive waste are getting more and more of relevance due to the nuclear phase out decision in 2011. For higher activities Type B(U) approved waste containers will be needed for the shut down and dismantling phases of NPPs. It is expected that large quantities are required in the near future. German waste containers are generally approved for transport and interim storage and are also intended for the final disposal in the Konrad repository. BAM is involved in the authority licensing of transport package designs in Germany. In this context, BAM is responsible for the assessment of safe containment, mechanical, thermal and quality management issues. BAM also operates test facilities and performs drop as well as thermal tests during package licensing procedures.
This paper summarizes our experience in the transport package design assessment of Type B(U) waste containers. A general overview of the approval process, the requirements and approaches BAM applies are described. Some examples are used to illustrate different aspects and technical issues we are addressing during the package assessment. In the first part of the paper the specific design aspects of German waste containers are described. Here, a general overview is given e.g. about closure systems, impact limiter designs, and the handling concepts. Furthermore, the wide range of radioactive content and their physical behavior including the impact on the packages assessment are described. The second part is focused on questions about the licensing and assessment process of German waste containers from the BAM authority point of view. The general approaches for the strategy of demonstration are outlined on the basis of the test conditions according to IAEA Regulations SSR-6. Furthermore, particular issues of the mechanical and thermal assessment with respect to the specific test conditions are discussed. For accident conditions of transport, aspects to be mentioned are e.g. the assessment of the lid bolts, the axial gap applied between content and lid, and the thermal behavior of the wood filled impact limiter after the fire test. However, issues of the assessment for routine and normal conditions of transport are addressed in this paper, too. The intention of this paper is introduce recent approval procedure experience in Germany, describing technical evaluation issues and so reduce rounds of questions during applications.