Los Alamos National Laboratory New Generation Standard Nuclear Material Storage Container- the SAVY4000 Design

Incidents involving release of nuclear materials stored in containers of convenience such as food pack cans, slip lid taped cans, paint cans, etc. has resulted in defense board concerns over the lack of prescriptive performance requirements for interim storage of nuclear materials. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has shared in these incidents and in response proactively moved into developing a performance based standard involving storage of nuclear material (RD003). This RD003 requirements document has sense been updated to reflect requirements as identified with recently issued DOE M 441.1-1 “Nuclear Material Packaging Manual”. The new packaging manual was issued at the encouragement of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board with a clear directive for protecting the worker from exposure due to loss of containment of stored materials. The Manual specifies a detailed and all inclusive approach to achieve a high level of protection; from package design & performance requirements, design life determinations of limited life components, authorized contents evaluations, and surveillance/maintenance to ensure in use package integrity over time. Materials in scope involve those stored outside an approved engineered-contamination barrier that would result in a worker exposure of in excess of 5 rem Committed Effective Does Equivalent (CEDE). In meeting the challenge of the Manual established “technically justified criteria” for packages to include all materials stored outside of engineered barriers, i.e., not just excess materials, a number of operational realities within the nuclear material facility at LANL come into play. The main storage vault is near capacity; new replacement container designs are limited to the footprint of existing non-compliant container sizes. The current requirements in the vault also require the use of respirators; an inefficient, dose intensive process. With an increasing active mission (MOX fuel, Life Extension Programs, Pit Manufacturing Capability etc.) containers must be designed for ease of use and capture a wide variety of contents. In addition, there is DNFSB pressure to repackage legacy containers and reduce facility MAR. With these internal and external drivers, there is a sense of urgency for Manual compliant containers.