Investigation of Cask Drop Analysis Method Considering Interaction With Its Contents for Reprocessed Radioactive Waste Shipping Cask

In Japan, radioactive wastes owing to the reprocess of the spent fuel will be returned from the U.K. and France in the near future. According to the IAEA regulations for transport, these waste shipping casks shall maintain their integrity during the drop tests. As to these reprocessed waste cask, some of the contents are spaced longitudinally in the cask and there are some gaps between the contents and the cask body. So, the impact phenomena of the contents at the drop test especially at a vertical orientation are very complicated for both the interaction between the contents and between the contents and cask body. It seems to be necessary to develop a method the evaluate the integrity not only of the cask body, but also of its contents. The main object of this study is to establish· a method for this kind of the interaction problem. As a first step, we developed a computer code using a lumped-mass model for analysis of free drop tests and examined the accuracy of the proposed code by comparing the test results using a scale model cask.