TN MW IRE : an application for fissile material of TN MW family

In 2015 the Institute for Radioelements (IRE) in Belgium needed a transport and interim storage solution to manage IRE irradiated material and be able to continue the production of radioisotope Molybdenum 99 for medical use. Basically, there was no available packaging existing at this time to transport this irradiated material, considering the high constraints related to the initial enrichment of the material. Moreover, loading and on-site storage areas were limited in size on IRE site, inducing restricted dimensions of the packaging. Furthermore, the solution had to be implemented (developed, licensed, manufactured, and tested) in 2 years to stick with IRE’s planning of evacuation for this irradiated material. In 2015, IRE contracted with Orano TN to deliver a TN®MW packaging adapted to this fissile material. The TN®MW IRE cask is an application of the TN®MW family. This new generation of casks has been developed by Orano TN (MW for Multi Waste) to provide operators with an all-in-one solution, dedicated to waste conditioning, transportation, storage and disposal. This highly flexible cask aims to simplify legacy, operational and D&D waste management while optimizing associated costs. The TN®MW is particularly adapted to small facilities, research reactors and laboratories through its reduced dimensions and weight that allow the management of quantities of various waste and easy handling operations. The concept of the TN®MW family takes into account Orano TN’s know-how acquired through more than 150 heavy casks models licensed by different authorities such as France, Switzerland, Belgium or Germany. The design answers to 2012 IAEA regulations with a total weight of 10 metric tons. The cask is developed on a flexible concept giving the opportunity to be easily adapted to nuclear needs for internal transport, IP-2 transport, B(U) transport, interim storage and disposal. The paper will describe key challenges of the IRE project from characterization of material to loading in the new casks through the design and licensing steps. It will give an overview of the TN®MW family ranging from High Level Waste to Low Level Waste of different sorts such as activated fuel structures, metallic structures, in-core instrumentation, contaminated equipment, sludge.