U.S. Department of Transportation specification packages evaluation

Specification packages are broad families of package designs developed and approved by the Department of Transportation (DOT) for transport of certain classes of radioactive materials, with each specification containing a number of designs of various sizes. Many of the individual package designs are not supported by reasonably current safety analyses. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) asked Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) staff to collect all related information, perform analyses, and identify alternative actions that will enable NRC and DOT to make informed decisions on whether to retain, withdraw, or modify the existing regulatory permission for the use of specification packages to transport radioactive and fissile materials. This paper presents the background, issues, and progress made in this activity. (author)