Brazed and welded cans for transport and storage of damaged fuel rods

For the type B(U)F package NCS 45 leak tight cans are stipulated in the certificate of package approval to provide a barrier for the radioactive material under routine and normal conditions of transport for fuel rods with a burn-up of more than 62 GWd/MgHM. For damaged fuel rods a significantly higher mass of heavy metal is permissible when using such cans.DAHER NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGIES GmbH (DAHER NT) is using two different technologies for producing leak tight cans. Brazed cans are produced under water in NPP pools and welded cans are produced under dry conditions in a Hot Cell.For the production of brazed cans as well as for the production of welded cans prequalification documents for brazing/welding have been set up by DAHER NT and released by the competent authority. The prequalification documents reflect the different production processes but are identical with respect to Quality Assurance (QA) requirements.Brazed cans are produced by using the Underwater Brazing Equipment (UBE), a patented technology. The qualification of the UBE was presented at PATRAM 2013 [2]. Welded cans are produced by orbital fusion and spot welding. With both technologies high quality stainless steel cans are produced which can be used for transport and storage.