Year
1988
Abstract
Radioactive materials that do not require much shielding are frequently shipped inside steel drums with cane fiberboard dunnage between the containment vessel and the steel drum. The cane fiberboard serves two purposes; 1) it cushions the containment vessel from impact and puncture and 2) it thermally protects the containment vessel from fire all as defined by the hypothetical accident tests specified in 10 CFR 71.73. Cane fiberboard provides the thermal protection by two mechanisms, insulation and sacrificial decomposition. This paper discusses the more important of the two, sacrificial decomposition, the design features that are important to the thermal performance of the package and the range of acceptable variation in these features.