New Contents for Old Casks

The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) at Hanford requested Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) Savannah River Packaging Technology (SRPT) to prepare a technical approach and strategy for shipments of sodium-bonded metal and carbide fuel from the FFTF to Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The selected approach is to ship sodium bonded fuel from FFTF under the guidance of Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) Spent Fuel Project Office ((SFPO) Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) document, ISG- 1, Damaged Fuel. The independent fuel canister is a new ASME Section III vessel that will free fit in the T-3 cask cavity to contain sodium bonded fuel assemblies or pins. This independent fuel canister ensures the T-3 shipments will meet all of the conditions of 10 CFR 71.55 without the need for an exception. This independent fuel canister provides physical protection in addition to protection provided by the existing cask and administrative controls. It also mitigates the concern T-3 containment was not fully designed, fabricated, evaluated and examined to current ASME Section III requirements. Performing updated analyses (e.g., structural) on the entire cask also documents and confirms the current margins of safety in the SARP. The approach to provide an Addendum with a new inner vessel was initiated in March 2006. Technical concepts for this approach have been developed and reviewed with Flour Hanford (FH), Energy Solutions (ES), DOE - Richland (DOE-RL), Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The basic concept was also communicated to the EM Office of Licensing. The project uses an existing ASME Section III vessel design with minor modifications to accommodate the FFTF payload and to facilitate remote loading and handling. This action allows the final shipments of an orphan payload to the designated consolidation site and allows the closure of a facility and its associated hot cell.