NUREG/CR-7209 PNNL-24792 A Compendium of Spent Fuel Transportation Package Response Analyses to Severe Fire Accident Scenarios Draft Report for Comment Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards AVAILABILITY OF REFERENCE MATERIALS IN NRC PUBLICATIONS NRC Reference Material Non-NRC Reference Material As of November 1999, you may electronically access Documents available from public and special technical NUREG-series publications and other NRC records at libraries include all open literature items, such as books, NRC’s Library at www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. 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Although references to Neither the U.S. Government nor any agency thereof, nor any employee, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, material found on a Web site bear the date the material or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for any third was accessed, the material available on the date cited party’s use, or the results of such use, of any information, may subsequently be removed from the site. apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this publication, or represents that its use by such third party would not infringe privately owned rights. NUREG/CR-7209 PNNL-24792 A Compendium of Spent Fuel Transportation Package Response Analyses to Severe Fire Accident Scenarios Draft Report for Comment Manuscript Completed: October 2015 Date Published: January 2016 Prepared by: J. A, Fort, J. M. Cuta, and H. E. Adkins, Jr. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory P. O. Box 999 Richland, WA 99352 J. Piotter, NRC Project Manager NRC Job Code J5710 Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards COMMENTS ON DRAFT REPORT Any interested party may submit comments on this report for consideration by the NRC staff. Comments may be accompanied by additional relevant information or supporting data. Please specify the report number NUREG/CR-7209 in your comments, and send them by the end of the comment period specified in the Federal Register notice announcing the availability of this report. Addresses: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods. Please include Docket ID NRC-2015-0234 in the subject line of your comments. Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted on the NRC website and on the Federal rulemaking website http://www.regulations.gov. Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket ID NRC-2015-0234. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher at 301-415-3463 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements, and Directives Branch (RADB), Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: OWFN-12- H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001. For any questions about the material in this report, please contact: Jimmy Chang, Thermal Engineer, 301-415-7427 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Please be aware that any comments that you submit to the NRC will be considered a public record and entered into the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). Do not provide information you would not want to be publicly available. 1 ABSTRACT 2 This document summarizes studies of truck and rail transport accidents involving fires, relative 3 to regulatory requirements for shipment of commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF). These studies 4 were initiated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in response to a 2006 National 5 Academy of Sciences review of procedures and regulations. The fire accident scenarios were 6 based on the most severe historical railway and roadway fires in terms of their potential impact 7 on SNF containers. 8 9 While no such accidents involving SNF have ever actually happened in shipments either by rail 10 or roadway, accidents resulting in fires do occur in both modes of transport and, however 11 unlikely, plausible arguments can be made for the possibility of SNF containers being involved 12 in such accidents. A regulatory framework for SNF containers is in place in the United States 13 (10 CFR 71) and internationally (International Atomic Energy Agency) to ensure that risk due to 14 such accidents is small and that the danger to the public is within accepted standards. The 15 history of this regulatory framework is briefly summarized. 16 17 The combined summary of this work on fire accidents demonstrates that current U.S. Nuclear 18 Regulatory Commission regulations and packaging standards provide a high degree of 19 protection to the public health and safety against releases of radioactive material in real-world 20 transportation accidents, were such events to involve SNF containers. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................ xi ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ..................................................................................... xiii 1.0 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................1-1 2.0 REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS FOR TRANSPORT OF SNF .....................................2-1 2.1 Genesis and Regulatory History ............................................................................ 2-1 2.1.1 Historical Background in the Development of Accident-Simulating Thermal Test .............................................................................................. 2-2 2.2 Summary of Current Regulations ........................................................................... 2-4 2.2.1 Domestic Licensed Containers (CFR) ........................................................ 2-5 2.2.2 International Licensed Containers (IAEA) ................................................... 2-6 3.0 ACCIDENT HISTORY, SAFETY FACTORS, AND TRANSPORT PLANS ......................3-1 3.1 Surveys of Rail and Truck Accidents ..................................................................... 3-1 3.1.1 Survey of Railway Accidents