Impact Testing to Assure Safety of Radioactive Material Transportation Packages

摘要

Packages for the transportation of large quantities of radioactive material are required to be accident resistant. One method of assuring this resistance is by physical tests. In order for a package to be certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it must withstand a free fall from 9 meters onto an essentially rigid target and a free fall from 1 meter onto a 15 cm diameter puncture spike. In addition, Sandia National Laboratories has performed tests that are not intended to support certification of any particular package but rather to advance the state of knowledge. Purposes for these tests include determination of margin of safety, benchmarking of computer models, development of input parameters for computer models, and demonstration of the rigor of the certification tests. An important part of any testing is measurement of the response of the test unit. For impact tests, typical measurements include accelerations, strains, relative motion, deformations, and the leak-tightness of the package. This paper will discuss all of these types of tests and the methods used for determining the test results.