NUREG-1768 United States Nuclear Regulatory Commisssion Package Performance Study Test Protocals

This test protocols report presents the NRC staff’s preliminary plans for an experimental phase of the Package Performance Study (PPS), which is examining the response of transportation casks to extreme transportation accident conditions. The staff proposes to conduct tests of full-scale rail and full-scale truck casks including a high-speed impact with an unyielding surface followed by an extreme fire test. The NRC has a contract in place with Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) to conduct the impact and fire tests and to carry out a series of analyses to support the test program. These tests support the PPS objectives of enhancing public confidence in the inherent safety of spent nuclear fuel cask design, validating the capability of the cask models and analysis codes to accurately capture cask and fuel response to extreme mechanical and thermal environments, and providing data to refine dose risk estimates.