Sandia's Full-Scale Crash Tests, 1975-1977

In 1978, DOE officials surveyed the various DOE laboratories with the intent of selecting a lead laboratory for conducting basic transportation technology development. The Transportation Technology Center (TTC) was established that same year with Sandia as the lead contractor, largely as a result of the effectiveness of the full-scale crash tests and the desing, analysis, and testing technology that supported the effort.

Sandia's TTC was given the mission of coordinating packaging and transportation R&D efforts among DOE's national laboratories and contractors. Sandia's programs anticipate future system needs, identify potential problems, and develop innovative technology to solve transportation and packaging problems and needs for DOE and other Federal agencies. The Labs' core technology and experience provide the necessary basis for a systematic approach to waste management packaging and transportation issues.

In the early 1970s, the AEC wanted to validate the safety of existing package design regulations. To this end, Sandia conducted a series of full-scale tests on truck, rail, and air transportation packages to obtain accurate data on the packages' response to severe transportation accidents. The resultant tests were spectacular and attracted a great deal of media attention. They also demonstrated that Sandia not only had the capability to perform such tests, but that it had the instrumentation and analytical engineering support to obtain and analyze the test data. These tests did validate the safety of existing regulations.

Between 1975 and 1977, Sandia carried out a series of full-scale tests of spent-fuel casks on trucks and railroad cars for the AEC and Department of Transportation (DOT). The following tests were carried out:

• Truck impact tests at 60 and 84 mph--truck trailer with a spent fuel cask crashed into a concrete barrier.*
• Grade crossing test: 120-ton diesel locomotive hitting a spent fuel cask at 80 mph at simulated grade crossing.
• Impact of special rail car and spent fuel cask system at 80 mph into a concrete barrier propelled by rocket motors.
• Fire test of the special rail car and cask system involving more than 1-1/2 hours of intense fire exposure.

* Concrete barrier was 10 ft thick and 20x20 ft. in the form of a trapezoid; it was affectionately referred to as Mount Yoshimura after Richard Yoshimura who designed and oversaw the tests.