The R83 Package: A new Type B(U) Fissile Package for Research Reactor Spent Fuels Transportation in the Netherlands

To cover the need of Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRG) to transport used LEU fuel from the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten and Hoger Onderwijs Reactor (HOR) in Delft to the intermediate storage facility HABOG at COVRA, Nieuwdorp, as well as waste from the Mo-99 production from its facilities in Petten, ROBATEL Industries has been selected to design, license and manufacture a new type B(U) fissile cask model, the R83.ROBATEL Industries is a worldwide nuclear turnkey services provider, especially regarding bespoke radioactive material transportation casks. For decades it has designed numerous package models, type B ones especially which require regulators approvals. Based on such a broad experience, the company acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the technical issues related to safety and to international regulations.R83: a new versatile spent fuels type B caskROBATEL Industries delivered two R83 packages and their ancillary equipment early 2019. This package has been specifically thought from the beginning to complies with all the site constraints imposed by the fact that the R83 replaces an old existing cask for which original interfaces had been designed for, and it allows an optimized shielding for current spent fuels to be transported and it was made future proof to be able to transport the future PALLAS reactor spent fuels.Dedicated proprietary materials developed by ROBATEL Industries (phenolic foams FENOSOL™, and PNT7™) have been implemented, with an innovation in that the impact limiters have been filled with FENOSOLTM with two different foam densities per impact limiters to ensure high overall performance level, especially regarding suitable shock absorbing feature, efficient fire protection, while keeping the dimensions within limits.The aim of this paper is to present this new R83 type B Fissile package design dedicated to the Research Reactor spent fuels transportation, describing the challenges and focusing on its specificities, mainly in terms of innovative implementation of materials and technical solutions.