Packagings for Severe Accident Protection •

Sandia National Laboratories is developing packagings for the safe air transport of radioactive material (RAM). Air transport packagings must contain the RAM payload during high speed impacts and subsequent fires. The packagings considered have capabilities beyond those of a Type B packaging. Recent development activities have focused on developing packagings for impact protection of 30 m/s (100 ft/s) and 60 minute fires. For multiple shipments, this protection level may be near optimal when the potential for RAM release is considered. However, in anticipation of changes in regulations, the goal is to develop packagings for impact protection up to 85 m/s (280 ft/s). The risk of RAM release is related to packaging performance and design approaches and testing on several packagings are described.