An analysis for detecting potential relocation of the inventory of dry storage containers during prolonged interim storage via changes in the wall temperature fields

摘要

We investigated the suitability of thermography for detecting a potential relocation of the inventory of dry storage containers of type CASTOR V/19. We used numerical simulations of the heat transfer in the container to determine the sensitivity of the wall temperature distribution to such changes. We conducted an analysis for three different hypothetical damage cases: a 9 cm compaction of the fuel in all fuel rods of a single fuel assembly, the same compaction in all fuel assemblies and a compaction of all fuel assemblies by 50 %. The analysis shows that the temperature difference between intact case and all three damage cases after 40 years is too low for an accurate detection becoming even lower for longer storage periods. Temporal thermal insulation of the containers may increase the temperature gradients but reducing the spatial resolution.