Thirty Years of Safe Irradiated Fuel Transport Maintaining the Record

Nuclear Electric plc is the generating company which has inherited the nuclear plant assets of the former Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) in March 1990. It currently operates two principal types of power reactor; the Magnox and AGR (Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor). There is a total of 10 AGR and 14 Magnox type reactors in operation at nine locations with a total capacity in excess of 8,333 MWe, and providing 18.5\\ of all electricity generated in England and Wales. Transport of irradiated fuel is a service which is essential to the continued operation of the gas cooled reactors operated by Nuclear Electric. The characteristics of the spent fuel arising from each reactor type require that two different designs of transport flask (or 'cask') are used for its transport to British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) Sellafield plant in Cumbria, North West England, for storage and reprocessing. The principal mode of transport is rail using special trains operated by British Rail (BR). The paper reviews the evolution of the design of the Magnox and AGR flasks over 30 years and outlines Nuclear Electric ' s operational arrangements including its system for collecting and responding to reports on any operating difficulties found with the flasks, and also the Nuclear Electric administered emergency response plan for the provision of assistance at the site of any accident involving a flask in transit. With the adoption of the 1985 edition of the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material by the United Kingdom Government there has been a requirement to install formal Quality Assurance (QA) systems. This paper also describes the Nuclear Electric systems and operating experience for all Irradiated Fuel Transport activities since the introduction of QA Progrlll'!Wee.