Regulatory compliance in the design of packages used to transport radioactive materials

Shipments of radioactive materials within the regulatory jurisdiction of the US Department of Energy (DOE) must meet the package design requirements contained in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 71, and DOE Order 5480.3. These regulations do not provide design criteria requirements, but only detail the approval standards, structural performance criteria, and package integrity requirements that must be met during transport. The DOE recommended design criterion for high-level Category I radioactive packagings is Section III, Division 1, of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. However, alternative design criteria may be used if all the design requirements are satisfied. The purpose of this paper is to review alternatives to the Code criteria and discuss their applicability to the design of containment vessels in packages for high-level radioactive materials. Issues such as design qualification by physical testing, the use of scale models, and problems encountered using a non-ASME design approach are addressed