Activities in Support of Licensing Ontario Hydro's Dry Storage Container for Radioactive Waste Transportation

The Dry Storage Container (DSC) is being developed by Ontario Hydro for the on-site storage and possible future transportation of used fuel. The DSC, as shown schematically in Figure 1, is essentially rectangular in shape and has a total weight of approximately 68 Mg when loaded with used fuel. The container cavity is designed to accommodate four rectangular fuel modules (each module contains 96 CANDU fuel bundles). The space between the inner and outer steel liners (each about 12 7 mm thick) is filled with high-density reinforced shielding concrete (approximately 500 mm thick). Polyurethane foamcore steel-lined impact limiters will be fitted around the container during transportation to provide impact protection. In addition, an armour ring will be installed around the flanged closure weld (inside the top impact limiter) to provide protection from an accidental pin impact. Analyses using in-house deve1oped impact and thermal computer codes and testing of scaled models to simulate accident conditions as specified by the Canadian Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) in their regulations governing the safe transport of radioactive materials have been carried out to ensure that the DSC can be transported from the on-site storage facility. As part of this process, it is desirable that both testing and analyses correlate in order to facilitate the acquisition of a transport license.