Publications Details

Spent fuel shipping cask sealing concepts

Sonnier, C.S.

In late 1985, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requested the US Program for Technical Assistance to IAEA Safeguards (POTAS) to provide a study which examined sealing concepts for application to spent fuel shipping casks. This request was approved, and assigned to Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia). In the course of this study, discussions were held with personnel in the International Safeguards Community who were familiar with the shipping casks used in their States. A number of shipping casks were examined, and discussions were held with two shipping cask manufacturers in the US. As a result of these efforts, it was concluded that the shipping casks provided an extremely good containment, and that many of the existing casks can be effectively sealed by applying the seal to the cask closure bolts/nuts.