Risk Management in the Design, Licensing and Fabrication Of a Research Reactor Spent Fuel Cask - Presentation

The adoption of the 1996 IAEA Regulations by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) required the decommissioning of many casks that had been in service in the United States. One such cask, the BMI-1, served a number of research reactors associated with university and US Department of Energy programs. A new package, the Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) Research Reactor Cask (USA/9341/B(U)F-96), was designed, licensed and fabricated in an expedited manner to replace the BMI-1 cask. The risks associated in this program came from a lack of well defined source terms, handling systems that were different for various facilities, and the need to be able to ship several different families of spent research reactor fuels. To meet the desired schedule, many of the activities were done in parallel. Established methodologies and materials were used to manage the risks associated with such a project. A previously licensed package was used as a basis of the design. The use of large design margins, conservative evaluation methods, and scale testing allowed the design and testing to move forward even though the contents were not fully defined. By addressing the areas of risk both in design and in licensing, appropriate allowances were made to minimize the impact on the project. The project required the delivery of one complete package with interchangeable baskets for the different families of fuel, and a complete set of lifting, handling, tiedown, vacuum drying and leak testing equipment. This paper discusses the management of the project risks and the lessons learned during the design, licensing and fabrication of the new package and auxiliary equipment.