Robotic handling of spent fuel shipping casks: Preliminary assessment of cask design impacts and technology development needs

Specific design guidelines will be required in order to facilitate robotic handling of spent fuel shipping casks. In order to develop these guidelines it is necessary to evaluate where robotic handling can contribute most in achieving system design objectives, such as reducing occupational radiation exposure and increasing system throughput. Priorities are developed for determining which robotic handling tasks offer the most potential for contributing to system objectives. An additional set of priorities is developed on the time by which the results of feasibility demonstrations and other simpler assessments are needed in order to contribute to the cask design process. The priorities are used to identify which robotic handling tasks need to be assessed in detail and when these results are needed in the cask design cycle. An outline of the type of information that needs to be developed in the feasibility demonstrations is provided