Radiological source terms resulting from sabotage to transportation casks: Final report

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) promulgated a rule, 10 CFR 73.37, which established requirements for safeguarding shipments of spent fuel to reduce the risk from acts of sabotage of highly radioactive materials. After the rule became effective, experimental programs conducted by Battelle for the NRC and by Sandia for the DOE showed the consequences of an attack using explosives on a shipment of PWR spent fuel were significantly less than had been indicated by earlier analytical studies. As a result, NRC is considering modifying the safeguards requirements. In support of NRC's efforts to modify the rule, Battelle has conducted additional experimental studies to evaluate the consequences of attacks on shipments of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) spent fuel, nonpower reactor (NPR) spent fuel, and vitrified high-level waste (HLW). Model casks containing surrogates of the spent fuels or high-level waste were penetrated by the jet from a precision shaped charge. Air samples collected after each test were used to estimate the quantities of respirable material released after the cask was penetrated. Results of the tests were scaled by specially developed scaling factors to estimate the releases that may occur from attacks on full-sized shipments of the materials. It was concluded that the sabotage of shipments of HTGR spent fuel, NPR spent fuel, or vitrified HLW should have no greater consequences than those predicted for shipments of PWR spent fuel