Spent Nuclear Fuel Transportation: An Overview

Spent nuclear fuel comprises a fraction of the hazardous materials packages shipped annually in the United States. In fact, at the present time, fewer than 100 packages of spent nuclear fuel are shipped annually. At the onset of spent fuel shipments to the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada, repository, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) expects to ship 400 - 500 spent fuel transport casks per year over the life of the facility. This study summarizes work on transportation cask design and testing, regulatory requirements, jurisdictional requirements, operational procedures and experience, and transportation risk assessments.