Publications Details
A program to qualify ductile cast iron for use as a containment material for Type B transport cask
The Department of Energy (DOE) is investigating the use of ductile cast iron (DCI) as a candidate material for radioactive material transportation cask construction. The investigation will include materials testing and full-scale cask testing. The major effort will focus on materials qualification and cask evaluation of the 9 meter and puncture drop test events. The test plan shall include a series of drop tests, and several core bars will be removed from the casting wall for material properties testing. Of particular interest is the evaluation of the material microstructure and fracture toughness parameters. Test instrumentation, used to define cask deceleration loads and strain during the drop tests, will be strategically placed in areas of the greatest structural interest. Part of the testing will include placement of an induced flaw. At the conclusion of the cask drop tests, the induced flaw(s) will be sectioned from the cask body for metallurgical examination. All test results will be documented in the safety analysis report for packaging for submission to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The goal of this program is a certificate of compliance for DCI from the NRC to transport high-level radioactive materials. The acceptance of DCI within the USA cask design community will offer an alternative to present-day materials for cask construction, and its entry has the potential of providing significant cost-savings.