Full scale impact testing for environmental and safety control of energy material shipping container systems

Heavily-shielded energy material shipping systems, similar in size and weight to those presently employed to transport irradiated reactor fuel elements, are being destructively tested under dynamic conditions. In these tests, the outer and inner steel shells interact in a complex manner with the massive biological shielding in the system. Results obtained from these tests provide needed information for new design concepts. Containment failure (and the resulting release of radioactive material to the environment which might occur in an extremely severe accident) is most likely through the seals and other ancillary features of the shipping systems. Analyses and experiments provide engineering data on the behavior of these shipping systems under severe accident conditions and information for predicting potential survivability and environmental control with a rational margin of safety