Summary Report on Optimized Designs for Shipping Casks Containing 2-, 3-, 5-, 7-, or 10-Year-Old PWR Spent Fuel

摘要

The purpose of this study was to develop new conceptual designs for large Pb, Fe, and U-shielded spent fuel casks which have been optimized for the shipment of 2-, 3-, 5-, 7-, or 10-year-old PWR spent fuel assemblies. Design specifications for about 100 cases of potential interest are presented along with a brief 20-page synopsis of the associated analyses. Optimized shielding requirements are presented for each type of cask as a function of the age of the spent fuel and the number of assemblies in the cask. With respect to criticality, a new type of inherently subcritical fuel assembly separator is described which uses hollow, borated stainless-steel tubes in the wall-forming structure between the assemblies. Steady-state and transient heat transfer analyses for casks under nominal and accident conditions were performed using the SCOPE code for Shipping Cask Optimization and Parametric Evaluation. Based on criticality, shielding, and heat transfer considerations, it appears that optimized cask designs could be developed to carry 15 to 18 five-year-old PWR fuel assemblies or as many as 18 to 21 ten-year-old PWR fuel assemblies. 4 figures, 4 tables. (ERA citation 08:029115)