Design, Development and Production of the TNF-XI New Powder Package

The TNF-XI was jointly developed by COGEMA LOGISTICS of France and Nuclear Fuel Industries, Ltd. (NFI) of Japan. The design and development of this package were started in 2000 and it was first used in 2003. The package design was based on the COGEMA LOGISTICS TNäUO2 package, which is cylindrical. To optimize the use of space and to facilitate operations, the TNF-XI incorporates four cavities. Each cavity is similar to one TNäU02. The overall shape of the package is approximately a one-meter cube, which allows it to be easily arranged and stacked in a transport container. It has a total weight of nearly 1 metric ton when loaded with 300 kg of uraniferous oxide material. The powder (or pellets) is placed inside NFI pails, and three pails are placed inside each cavity. The test results and analyses were documented in the French, Japanese, and United States ‘Safety Analysis Reports’ in order to get approvals in these countries. Additionally, the French license was validated in other countries. The ‘Safety Analysis Reports’ were prepared by COGEMA LOGISTICS in France, NFI in Japan and PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, Inc. in the USA. In order to transform the TNF-XI design into a fleet of 800 packagings, a successful mass production process had to be developed and put into place by COGEMA LOGISTICS and the fabricator MECAGEST. Adopting mass production methods was challenging – not only because of the large quantity of packages, but also because of the rate of production (50 units per month minimum), quality requirements and the need to keep low packaging costs. This resulted in a significant challenge for mass producing the packaging: what was needed was a robust, efficient, and well-organized process. During the development of the manufacturing process, we also worked on shortening the learning curve.