THE EB3-A400/300 OVERPACK – A PACKAGING FOR THE TRANSPORT OF FISSILE MATERIAL STORED IN DOT 7A DRUMS

In the early 90´s enriched uranium ashes were transported from the USA to France in 860 inner drums DOT 7A and outer drums of type DOT 17H. Since then, these drums are stored in France. The DOT certificate for the DOT 17H drum expired and was not prolonged. Therefore a transport under this certificate is no longer possible. To enable the transport of this material without extensive repacking, DAHER-NCS developed a packaging which allows the transport of the filled DOT 7A drum. This packaging is designed as a set of drums. The package is compounded of: the outer EB3-A400/300 drum, the rock wool layer, the inner EB1-A200 drum and finally the DOT 7A. Such a design allows the separation of the safety functions. The outer EB3- A400/300 drum has a mechanical protection function, the rock wool has a thermal protection function and the inner EB1-A200 drum has containment and confinement functions. The application for the package approval has been submitted to the competent French Authority to be licensed in France for LSA II fissile material as an IP-2 packaging, for transport by road, rail and sea. For the safety proof, DAHER-NCS has performed tests for normal, routine and accidental conditions of transport. The EB3-A400/300 packaging has undergone drop tests (from 1.3 m, drop test on a bar, crush test from 9m), water immersion test, criticality and thermal calculations (simulation of a fire accident at 800°C for half an hour). After the drop tests, the EB1-A200 drum has shown no significant damages and no leakage above the criterion of 1E-4 Pa m3 s-1. Thermal calculations have shown that the rock wool has ensured its thermal protection role, the temperature inside the DOT 7A drum remains well below 100 °C. All these successful tests have proven the safety of the EB3-A400/300 package and the license can be adapted to other materials stored in DOT 7A drums