POSSIBLE IDENTITY AND INTEGRITY VERIFICATION DURING TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF SPENT FUEL CASKS OF THE CASTOR AND POLLUX TYPES

The facilities of the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle in Germany, such as interim dry storage facilities, conditioning facilities and the geological repositories, are characterized mainly by the inaccessibility of the spent fuel, contained in shielded casks during transport and storage. With regard to the continuity of knowledge of the cask content, sealing systems which are suitable for the identity and integrity verification of casks play a major role for safeguarding the casks. Due to the forthcoming storage of spent fuel and highly active vitrified waste in German interim storage facilities, discussions are under way on seals and sealing systems most suitable for cask transport and long-term storage. In this context the paper describes and analyzes selected seals and sealing systems, such as E-type metal cap seal, VACOSS-S, RIVA, sealing bolts and weld seam methods for their applicability to the casks of the CASTOR and POLLUX types.