The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) does not currently require full-scale physicaltesting of shipping casks as part of its certification process. Stakeholders have long urged NRC torequire full-scale testing as part of certification. NRC is currently preparing a full-scale casktestingproposal as part of the Package Performance Study (PPS) that grew out of the NRCreexamination of the Modal Study. The State of Nevada and Clark County remain committed tothe position that demonstration testing would not be an acceptable substitute for a combination offull-scale testing, scale-model tests, and computer simulation of each new cask design prior tocertification. Based on previous analyses of cask testing issues, and on preliminary findingsregarding the July 2001Baltimore rail tunnel fire, the authors recommend that NRC prioritizeextra-regulatory thermal testing of a large rail cask and the GA-4 truck cask under the PPS. Thespecific fire conditions and other aspects of the full-scale extra-regulatory tests recommended forthe PPS are yet to be determined. NRC, in consultation with stakeholders, must consider pastreal-world accidents and computer simulations to establish temperature failure thresholds for caskcontainment and fuel cladding. The cost of extra-regulatory thermal testing is yet to bedetermined. The minimum cost for regulatory thermal testing of a legal-weight truck cask wouldlikely be $3.3-3.8 million.
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