Methodology for Evaluating the Consequences of Aircraft Impacts into Spent Fuel Transportation/Storage Systems

Aircraft crashes into spent fuel transportation and storage systems have the potential to cause an extreme loading event, perhaps beyond the design basis for the system. These crashes may be initiated by accident or by deliberate sabotage. This paper will describe a methodology to assess the vulnerability of spent fuel transportation and storage systems to impacts resulting from aircraft crashes. The first step is to determine what threat must be protected against. Important factors are the probability of a crash, the type of aircraft, and the impact velocity and angle. The next consideration is the type of analysis that needs to be performed. At this stage a screening analysis should be performed to further reduce the number of analyses that must be performed. Detailed assessments must be carried out for the remaining scenarios. These assessments can be carried out by hand calculations, finite element calculations, or tests. The purpose of the detailed assessment is to determine the damage state of the transportation or storage system and the environmental sourceterm for use in consequence analyses. A consequence code that models atmospheric transport and radiological health consequences is used to determine the effect of the radioactive material release on emergency responders, clean-up personnel, and the general public. The method given in this paper can be used for performing risk assessments, safety evaluations, or vulnerability assessments. However, the cost of performing a detailed comprehensive assessment is quite large, and usually only a few cases are examined and the results extrapolated to other cases.