Regulatory Assessment of a Dual Purpose Cask TN 81 for Interim Storage of Intermediate Level Waste

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) is the regulatory authority for Commonwealth entities, which operate nuclear installations (e.g. radioactive waste storage facility, research reactor) in Australia. The main legislation and regulatory framework governing the safety of nuclear installations is the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency Act 1998 (the Act) [1] and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Regulations 1999 (the Regulations) [2]. In addition, ARPANSA is the Competent Authority for Commonwealth entities for inland transport of Australia. In regulating transport of radioactive material ARPANSA has adopted the IAEA Regulations for Safe Transport of Radioactive Material 2012 edition [3] in the form of the ARPANSA’s Code of Practice for Safe Transport of Radioactive Material 2014 (RPS C-2) [4].Since the dual purpose cask TN 81containing intermediate level waste is stored in a purpose built intermediate level waste storage facility, the storage of TN 81 cask is authorised under the facility licence for operating a nuclear installation. In assessing the application for operating nuclear installations ARPANSA assessor prepares a regulatory assessment report(RAR) which is a recommendation to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ARPANSA whether to issue a licence and/or approve a certain conduct or dealing with radioactive material. Following issuing a licence and/or approval ARPANSA’s compliance monitoring emphasises assurance of safety through regular reporting, as well as planned and reactiveinspections.This paper describes the regulatory assessment of storage of a dual purpose cask, TN 81, containing intermediate level solid waste in an interim waste store (IWS). The key aspects for storage of TN 81 package considered in the assessment include storage configuration, package sub-assemblies, containment analysis, radiation protection, stability analysis, thermal analysis, accident analysis for storage operation, management system, inspection and maintenance, and operational limits and conditions. In cases where the test results were not available, calculated results and alternative means were used to demonstrate that theregulatory requirements have been satisfied.