A Regulator's Perspective on Physical Testing for Type B Packages

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a great deal of experience certifying Type B transport packages as complying with the regulations in 10 CFR Part 71. With this experience base, supporting risk studies, and with an exceptional historical safety record for transport, we are very confident in both the current regulations and the methods we use to review and certify transportation packages. Nevertheless, we have a responsibility to remain vigilant and review our regulations and implementing practices with a view towards continuous improvement. NRC regulations permit certification through testing, analyses, comparison to similar approved designs, or combinations of these methods. Testing can be further broken into scale models, components, simple models, or full-scale models. NRC does not require full-scale testing for certification of any package; however, many applicants for package certification have conducted a physical testing program to demonstrate that the package design meets the hypothetical accident conditions. The plans for a repository at Yucca Mountain have raised significant interest in the United States of America in transportation of spent fuel, and created a broad stakeholder and public interest in transportation package testing. As an expected large increase in the number of spent fuel transports nears, this interest will likely grow. The technical and regulatory reasons for, or for not, performing tests need to be well understood and communicated to all stakeholders.