Experience with certifying borated stainless steel as a shipping cask basket material

The original cask designs for a cask demonstration project featured fuel baskets constructed of borated stainless steel (bss) as a structural material. The project is intended to demonstrate casks that can be used for both shipping and storing spent nuclear fuel assemblies. The baskets were intended to maintain the fuel assemblies in a subcritical array for both normal and accident conditions. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, however, judged bss to be unacceptable as a structural material. The cask designs were subsequently modified. The knowledge gained during this cask demonstration project may be applicable to development of bss as a basket material in future cask design. 6 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs