Status of spent-fuel shipping cask development

The purpose of the Cask Systems Development Program is to develop a variety of cask systems that can safely and economically transport commercial spent fuel and high-level waste from the generating sites to a federal geologic repository or monitored retrievable storage (MRS) facility. This paper is limited to a discussion of the status of from-reactor spent-fuel cask development; future cask development plans include MRS-to-repository casks, specialty casks for nonstandard spent fuel and nonfuel materials, and defense high-level waste casks. Spent-fuel casks must be available in the late 1990s to support the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) shipments from utilities. DOE-Idaho, with the support of EG ampersand G Idaho, Inc., Sandia National Laboratories, and selected cask developing contractors, has been assigned the responsibility for developing a new generation of cask systems. Four categories of spent fuel casks were initially proposed: (1) legal weight truck (LWT) casks (2) overweight truck (OWT) casks (3) rail/barge (R/B) casks (4) dual purpose (DP) storage/transport casks. Casks are being designed for reduced occupational radiation exposure at the receiving facility by facilitating the use of remote handling equipment. Automation of remote handling systems may be used to reduce cask turnaround time. Reducing turnaround time promotes reduced radiation exposure to occupational workers and improves cask utilization efficiency