materials Nuclear safety is the set of technical and organizational - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transport of radioactive materials

Nuclear safety is the set of technical and organizational measures for the design, construction, operation, shutdown and dismantling of nuclear facilities, and the transport of radioactive substances, taken to prevent accidents and limit their effects

 15 millions of packages called “dangerous” per year in France  900 000 radioactive packages

 Inhalation or ingestion of radioactive particles in the case of release of radioactive substances into the environment  External irradiation of people in the event of deterioration of the "biological protection package“  Contamination of the environment in case of release of radioactive substances  Risk of criticality

 Ability of some atoms to trigger a uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction just because of their proximity  Favored in presence of water

 Fire  Mechanical impact due to a transport accident  Introduction of water into the package  Chemical interaction between the different parts of the package  Heat release of the product

Necessity of control the quality of these packages

 3 missions • Regulate: contribute to the development of regulations, providing advices to the Government on the draft decrees and ministerial orders or taking regulatory technical decisions • Control: verify compliance with the rules and regulations which are subject facilities or activities it audits • Inform: participate in public information, including cases of emergency

 Since 2006  Right to information and obligation of information from the Administration and operators  Access to reports of controls from the ASN

 radiation at the surface of the vehicle : Less than 2 mSv/h  Radiation at 2m: less than 0.1 mSv/h

 Excepted packages  Industrial packages and type A packages non fissile  Type B and fissile packages  Type C packages

 Transport of very low radioactive quantites, like radiopharmaceuticals

 Industrial: low concentration in terms of radioactivity  Type A non fissile: radioactive substances with a low total activity

 Regulation: tests to assess their robustness • exposure to a severe storm (rainfall of 5 cm per hour for at least one hour) • fall onto an unyielding surface of a variable height depending on the weight of the package (maximum 1.20 m) • compression equivalent to 5 times the mass of the package • penetration by dropping of a standard bar of a height of 1m on the package  Results: no increase of the radiation more than 20%

 most radioactive substances such as spent fuel, nuclear waste vitrified high- level and long-lived or the new fuel  Around 60 000 packages per year in France

 Height: 6.12m  Diameter: 2.43m  Container weight during filling: 114,3 t max  Capacity: 20 or 28 cans with glass HLW

 Designed so that safety is ensured even during transport accident • three events in series  9m drop onto an unyielding surface = shock of 50 km/h  1m drop on a punch  encircling fire of at least 800 ° C for 30 minutes • Immersion in water to a depth of 15m, or 200m for spent fuel, for 8 hours  Result: maximum 10 mSv/h at 1m

 Tansport of highly radioactive materials by air  No approval in France for Type C packages for civil use

 For every new model of transport packages, the designer has to prove the compliance with safety standards  Around 10 years to get it

 periodic inspections of the components of the containment (screws, bolts, welds, seams…)  periodic inspections of securing and handling members  Checking of the storage conditions of packaging components

 Half of the controls  Checking of the marking, labeling, signaling and transport documents