REGULATORY TESTING OF A MODERN MEDICAL ISOTOPE TRANSPORTATION PACKAGE

Changes in the regulations governing certification of radioactive materials transportation packages have resulted in a number of packages losing their certificates. This is prompting a new generation of transportation packages for a variety of radioactive materials. EnergySolutions was tasked by the Dutch company Tyco Mallinckrodt (now Covidien) with developing a new Type B transportation package for a medical isotope to be used for international shipment. The design and licensing of this package was the responsibility of EnergySolutions Spent Fuel Division, Inc, and fabrication of the package was performed by Manufacturing Sciences Corporation, both subsidiaries of EnergySolutions. Because of the reputation for the U.S. licensing process, Tyco Mallinckrodt chose to have the package certified in the United States by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and to obtain Certificates of Competent Authority from other nations as required. Due to tight schedule constraints and a desire to deploy the new, higher capacity isotope transportation cask, expedited completion of the certification was needed. One of these tasks was to perform regulatory testing (10CFR71.73) on a full-scale package. Testing included performance of 9m drop tests, a 1m puncture drop, and thermal testing to simulate fire conditions. This paper discusses the testing basis, experience and results and describes how the results compared to the pre-test predictions. A discussion of the applicability of this approach to other new package designs is also provided.