Revisions to the DOE Approved NAC-LWT Safety Analyses Report to Support Shipment of the CEUSP Materials

Transportation to support the Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Project (CEUSP) material from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) represented several distinct challenges. Although the CEUSP material was qualified as low-level waste (LLW), it contained fissile U-233 and U-235, and hence the CEUSP material was managed as special nuclear material. As the CEUSP material originated from a 1960s research and development test of thorium and uranium fuel, it also contained various impurities not typical of U-233 oxides. Since the CEUSP material was originally extracted as 8,000 liters of liquid uranyl nitrate, cadmium and gadolinium were added to prevent criticality. By the mid-1980 with increased safety and security concerns, but no identified purpose for the CEUSP material, the material was solidified at high temperatures into more than 400 individual small, ceramic-like uranium oxide monoliths. Each uranium oxide monolith was bonded to the inside of a steel canister measuring about 8.9 cm in diameter by 61 cm long. After determining that down blending prior to disposal did not represent a viable option (i.e., shipping and disposal would occur in its existing ceramic-like form), and disposal was limited to the Nevada National Security Site, an extensive safety analyses revision was performed for the NAC International Legal Weight Truck Cask System (NAC-LWT) to ensure the material could be transported safely. This paper discusses the associated revisions of the NAC-LWT Safety Analysis Report in Packaging approved by the United States Department of Energy (i.e., the additional required analyses), as well as the associated regulatory reviews required to support the transportation of the CEUSP material from ORNL to the NNSS.