Design Aspects of Plutonium Air-Transportable Packages*

Recent worldwide interest in transporting plutonium powders by air has created a need for expanding the packaging technology base as well as improving our understanding of how plutonium air transport (PAn packagings perform during severe accident tests. Historically it has not been possible to establish design rules for individual package components because of the complex way parts interacted in forming a successful whole unit. Also, computer analyses were only considered valid for very limited portions of the design effort because of large deformations, localized tearing occurring in the package during accident testing, and extensive use of orthotropic materials. Consequently, iterative design and experimentation has historically been used to develop plutonium air-transportable packages. Full-scale prototypes have been tested since scaling of packages utilizing wood as an energy absorber and thermal insulator has not proven to be very successful. This is because the wood grain and dynamic performance of the wood during crush do not always scale. The high cost of full-scale testing of large packages has certainly hindered obtaining additional data and developing new designs.