Ontario Hydro Radioactive Filter Transport Packages

Ontario Hydro operates 18 heavy water moderated reactors generating 13.2 GW of electrical power. For purification of the heavy water used in the moderator and heat transport systems, particulate filters and IX columns are used. After the filters and IX columns are spent, they need to be transported to the Radioactive Waste Storage Site for storage until disposal some time in the future. Ontario Hydro, during maintenance and reactor rehabilitation. also produces radioactive reactor components such as pressure tubes and shut off rod segments which need to be shipped to AECL CRNL or WNRE for research and testing. Ontario Hydro has designed, developed and tested a new transportation package (the Radioactive Filter Transport Package) for such shipments. (See figure 1.) This paper describes design details of the new package and its evolution from a previously developed transport package for transportation of tritiated heavy water. A discussion of changes and refinements in package design is presented. This is followed with a discussion on regulatory compliance. And finally, an account of the manufacturing and quality assurance programs is presented.