Year
2010
File Attachment
Abstract
The designs of the packages have to take into account both the constraints of the nuclear facilities and the various natures of radioactive contents to be carried through areas outside such facilities. At CEA, the development of nuclear research programs and the objectives fixed on decommissioning operations of nuclear facilities lead to a renewal of the ancient packages. The CEA is a nuclear operator in France by the installations built on the different sites. For the transport of radioactive materials, the CEA is an applicant for the issue of package approvals from the national safety authority. The CEA is also organizing many transports as the user of packagings and, often, as the owner of packagings, in particular the Type B packages. The paper will review, for three designs, how the new CEA packages are meet the applicable requirements of the recent Regulation: IR800 package for the transportation of the irradiated nuclear fuels: LR144 tank with the high material performances to suit with the chemical properties of radioactive liquid waste: DE25 design in development for the transport of radioactive solid wastes with the possible hydrogen explosion in the cask due to the radiolysis risks. The main characteristics and the reasons associated to the technical choices will be discussed according to the available systems, the test materials and the safety demonstration requirements. Finally, the paper will show an example of the complexity arisen during a safety assessment by the example of the SORG tank: a qualified method may not be shared as a common reference between the experts of the Applicant and the experience feedback of the safety expertise on the topic. For that reason, common approaches between the Actors (Applicants, Regulators, and Experts) should be shared as soon as possible during the assessment of the design in order to manage the risks of the licensing process of a radioactive container project.