Use of Type-B Packages for Transporting LSA Waste

Paragraph 422 of IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material (Safety series n°6, 1985 Edition As amended 1990) Specifies that \"the quantity of LSA material or SCO in a single industrial package ... shall be so restricted that the external radiation level at 3 m from the unshielded material... does not exceed l 0 mSv/h (I rem/h).\" This requirement introduced in the last edition of IAEA regulations, results in the impossibility to transport the most irradiating LSA waste in an IP container, except if the quantity of such irradiated waste is reduced with a view to meet the abovementioned criterion. This is a concern for companies like EDF or SKB, the Swedish nuclear waste management organisation. Both of them therefore asked Transnucleaire to suggest a solution, able to avoid the limitation of transported material, compatible with the dose rate criteria, with the natural wish to keep the use of the primary container (for which the compliance with storage requirements had been strictly demonstrated) and matching as much as possible with the operational parts of the corresponding nuclear and storage sites and transport system, against a reasonable cost.