Experience in planning, receipt and transportation of a variety of TRIGA spent fuels

In the first six years of the United States Department of Energy, Foreign Research Reactor (FRR) Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Return Program, 5 shipments, from 6 different countries, involving 12 casks with over 1200 TRIGA spent fuel assemblies, have been safely received and stored at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). Each shipment, and fuel type received, has gone through a rigorous pre- shipment preparation process that includes fuel characterization and cask shipping data, in support of criticality and facility specific safety reviews, culminating in an 'authorization to ship' from the Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID). Transportation of the spent fuel to INEEL has been performed by several different firms. NAC International is one of two contractors to the U.S. Department of Energy chartered with transportation for research reactor fuels to the United States. NAC was the first to transport fuel to the Idaho Nuclear Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). It developed its packaging and transportation process in concert with INEEL personnel in order to meet their facility safety analysis and achieve handling and storage efficiency. To date, shipments have been made from a number of TRIGA facilities and have included aluminum and stainless steel clad pins, high and low enriched fuel, and single and clustered fuel designs. (author)