MECHANICAL ASSESSMENT OF LARGE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT COMPONENTS IN TRANSPORT LICENSING

In the course of decommissioning of power plants in Germany large nuclear components (steam generator, reactor pressure vessel) must be transported over public traffic routes to interim storage facilities, where they are dismantled or stored temporarily. Since it concerns surface contaminated objects (SCO) or low specific activity materials (LSA), a safety evaluation considering the IAEA transport regulations mainly for industrial packages (Type IP-2) is necessary. For these types of industrial packages the requirements from normal transport conditions are to be covered for the mechanical proof. E. g. it is required a free drop of the package from a defined height, in dependence of its mass, onto an unyielding target, and a stacking test. Since physical drop tests are impossible generally due to the singularity of such “packages”, a calculation has to be performed, preferably by a complex numerical analysis. The assessment of the loads takes place on basis of local stress distributions, also with consideration of radiation-induced brittleness of the material and with consideration of recent scientific investigation results. Large nuclear components have typically been transported in an unpackaged manner, so that the external shell of the component provides the packaging wall. The investigation must consider the entire component including all penetration areas such as man-holes or nozzles. According to the present IAEA regulations the drop position is to be examined, which causes the maximum damage to the package. In case of a transport under special arrangement a drop only in an attitude representing the usual handling position (administratively controlled) is necessary. If dose rate values of the package are higher than maximum allowable values for a public transport, then it is necessary that additional shielding construction units are attached to the large component.