A REVISION OF THE CASK DESIGNERS GUIDE FOR THE '90s

The report A Guide for the Design, Fabrication, and Operation of Shipping Casks for Nuclear Applications, ORNL-NSIC-68, commonly called the Cask Designers Guide, is being revised at the request of the Transportation and Packaging Safety Division of the Department of Energy (DOE). The new document will be called the Packaging Handbook. The Cask Designers Guide was published in 1970 during the period when many radioactive materials packagings were being developed and many technical studies applicable to these packagings were being performed. Since that period, many improvements in packaging design have appeared, designers have improved their calculational techniques, and much effort has gone into applying Quality Assurance (QA) principles to cask development. Materials, and their limitations, have surfaced as a very important consideration in the licensing process. While the Packaging Handbook considers all Type B packages, most of the authors' experience lies in the technical areas found in the licensing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) packagings and this is reflected in the document.