TN® Lab: addressing the need for shipping radioactive sources and irradiated samples by making the design and licensing process more effective

The TN® Lab cask, the so called “Flying pig,” has been developed by Orano TN to respond to the increasing demand for a cost-effective, flexible and compact solution to transport small sources and small quantities of irradiated or activated material coming from research laboratories by road, sea, and air. A specific Working Group with different international laboratories (HOTLAB) was launched to define specifications and main characteristics of the new cask. Based on the Working Group conclusions, the following two key safety options were retained to cost effectively design and license the cask in a timely manner while still offering loading flexibility for the different users: <ul><li>the mechanical analysis in normal and accident conditions of transport was conducted exclusively with numerical simulation and without time- and cost-consuming drop tests on a scale model;</li>the definition of content by inequalities was made to transport a large spectrum of nuclides with a limited level of activity. This flexible definition of the content enables a large range of user needs.</li></ul> The first “Flying Pig” has been manufactured. The licensing process has been completed so that its first transportation of radioactive material is to be carried out in 2019. This paper not only presents the characteristics of the final TN® Lab solution but mainly focuses on the implementation of the two previous key safety options used for the cask design and licensing.