DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF LEGAL WEIGHT TRUCK TRACTOR AND PROTOTYPE SEMITRAILER FOR THE HIGHWAY TRANSPORT OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL

The US Department of Energy (DOE), through the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), has sponsored the development of a Legal Weight Truck (LWT) tractor and speciallydesigned semitrailer transport system (LWT System). The LWT System is comprised of a commercial production cab-over-engine (COE) truck tractor produced by Freightliner, Inc. and a lightweight semitrailer designed by General Atomics (GA) and fabricated by General Trailer. The LWT System is intended to support the requirement for highway transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) loaded into the General Atomics 9-assembly transport cask (GA-9). The LWT System is required to weigh less than 26,000 pounds to satisfy the legal weight status requirement (gross vehicular weight under 80,000 pounds) while transporting the 54,000 pound (loaded) GA-9 cask. Legal weight status is important for eliminating state-by-state permitting of individual overweight (gross vehicular weight over 80,000 pounds) shipments as well as the associated delays, fees, and routing restrictions. The semitrailer is designed and maintained in accordance with ANSI N14.30 \"Semitrailers Employed in the Highway Transport of Weight-Concentrated Radioactive Loads: Design, Fabrication, and Maintenance.\" Semitrailer design is also in accordance with the weld sizes and stresses permitted by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) \"Manual of Steel Construction.\" LWT System inspection during operation will be in accordance with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) \"North American Uniform Out-of- Service Criteria\", as well as ANSI N14.30.