Certification Testing of the MOX Fresh Fuel Package (MFFP)

Packaging Technology, Inc. (PacTec) is designing the MFFP as part of the Duke, COGEMA, Stone and Webster (DCS) consortium. DCS is tasked with providing the Department of Energy (DOE) with domestic MOX fuel fabrication and reactor irradiation services for the purpose of disposing of surplus weapons usable plutonium. This paper will discuss the development of the MFFP certification test program. The MFFP was subjected to a total of eleven free and puncture drops of the course of the certification testing. Because of the plutonium content, the design must be a Type BF, which among other things requires a containment boundary with a tested leakage rate of 1x10-7 cm3 /s air at 1 atm absolute and 25°C, or less. Both economics (desire for maximized payload) and operational (conveyance mode restricts size and weight) constraints lead to a highly optimized design. The optimized package design led to a significant test program which needed to address the containment boundary stability, puncture resistance of the package and lid end impact limiter, structural performance of the light weight lid structure, and stability of the internal structures. The test program efficiently balanced the test objectives while minimizing the number of costly hardware items used during this destructive testing. This balance achieved by strategic replacement of mock & prototypic payloads, impact limiters, and by careful test order considerations. The paper will conclude with a selected summary of the testing and an assessment of the test programs thoroughness.