Lessons Learned from the West Valley Spent Nuclear Fuel Shipment within the United States

This paper describes the lessons learned from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) transportation of
125 DOE-owned commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies by railroad from the West Valley Demonstration
Project to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). On July 17, 2003, DOE made
the largest single shipment of commercial SNF in the history of the United States. This was a highly visible and
political shipment that used two specially designed Type B transportation and storage casks. This paper describes
the background and history of the shipment. It discusses the technical challenges for licensing Type B packages
for hauling large quantities of SNF, including the unique design features, testing and analysis. This paper also
discusses the preshipment planning, preparations, coordination, route evaluation and selection, carrier selection
and negotiations, security, inspections, tracking, and interim storage at the INEEL.