Structural Analysis of High Capacity CANDU Spent Fuel Cask under Normal Conditions

The purpose of this paper is to identify the type of structural load of the upper mechanism and to establish the design criteria of normal condition for high capacity CANDU spent fuel cask. And in the conceptual design review stage, computational modeling was performed for structural analysis according to the normal condition load. In this study, it is necessary to evaluate the structural safety of the upper mechanism because the flask stacking and the normal dropping condition that can occur in the normal operation of the spent fuel large capacity transport cask for heavy water reactor should have the safe function of upper mechanism. Dynamic analysis for 0.3 m normal condition drop had also the final residual deformation under the housing design criteria gap but at impact moment, maximum deformation is close to the design criteria gap and the stress of housing are beyond the elastic limit. Therefore, a part of the housing structures shall be reinforced not to exceed its elastic range.