Integrity of the POLLUX Cask for Final Disposal: Experimental Results of the Mechanical Tests

POLLUX is a cask designed for transportation, interim storage, and final disposal of spent-fuel elements in connection with the planned Gorleben Repository in Germany. In context with the design safety evaluation of the POLLUX cask, BAM performed several drop tests under IAEA type B- and storage handling accident impacts with a full-scale prototype. The inner and outer cask were instrumentated with strain gauges and accelerometers of which the transient signals were basis for the stress analysis. The drop test program, the cask instrumentation, and the measurement techniques are described by the same authors in the paper 'Drop Test Program with the German POLLUX Cask for Final Disposal of Spent Fuel'. Three of the drop tests and their preliminary results of the stress analysis will be presented in this paper: results of the 9 m horizontal and declined drop test (cask equipped with impact limiters) onto an unyielding target and a 5 m drop test (cask without impact limiters) onto a concrete target.