TENERIFE Program : High Temperature Experiments On A 4 Tons UF6 Container

Over the past few years, the International Atomic Energy Agency has been working on establishing regulation for UF6 transportation which should take into account chemical and radiological hazards. This action took a concrete form with the guide TEC - DOC 587-2 published by the IAEA in 1989 and which will serve as a basis for the next issue of the IAEA regulation for the transport of radiactive materials (Safety Series n°6), planned for 1995. This guide specifically provides that packagings for the transport of non-fissile products (enrichissment less than 1 %), such as the type 48Y cylinder, must be able to resist in the fire conditions identical to these related to containers for radioactive materials of type B, 800°C for half an hour. Since the capacity of a 48Y container to withstand fire cannot be guaranteed by calculations, an experiment (TENERIFE project) was defined and integrated into a wider IAEA research programme. The main purpose of these tests is to verify the resistance to fire of 48Y containers. The contract to cover the collaboration between Japan and France was signed in October 1991.