Spent fuel transport

The transport of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste is regulated by national authorities and based on the IAEA transport recommendations

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14.7 Spent fuel storage pools in rock chambers at the Swedish Central Interim Storage Facility, CLAB, at Oskarshamn, Sweden (© SKB).

(IAEA, 2009c). For spent nuclear fuel so-called type B packages will be needed, that can sustain drops, fires and submersion in water (more details of these tests are given in the transport recommendations). A transport cask for spent fuel is typically a cylinder about 5 m long and 1-2 m in diameter. It is designed to provide adequate shielding against gamma and neutron radiation, to control criticality and to remain tight in case of postulated accidents. The weight is around 50-100 tonnes (Fig. 14.8). There is ample experience of spent fuel shipments from nuclear power plants to reprocess­ing plants or to central storage facilities (more than 100,000 tonnes). Most transports of spent fuel have been made by rail or ship, but also shorter transports on normal roads have been made. Transports have been made within countries such as France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the USA and also across borders, e. g. from Finland and Bulgaria to Russia, and from Japan and Germany to France and the United Kingdom.