ML19249A192
| ML19249A192 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 07/25/1978 |
| From: | Casey Smith NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | Levine S NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REGULATORY RESEARCH (RES) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19249A190 | List: |
| References | |
| SECY-78-311A, NUDOCS 7908210162 | |
| Download: ML19249A192 (5) | |
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MEMORANCUM FOR: Saul Levine, Director Office of huclear Regulatory Research Clifford V. Smith, Jr., Director FROM:
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards RESEARCH REQUIREMENT ON VULNERABILITY OF SFENT FUEL SU3 JECT:
SHIPMENTS TO MALEVOLENT EVENTS (NMSS 78-7)
The attached NMSS P.esearch Requirement fornally expresses the Division of Safeguards needs for research support in the evaluation of the vulnerability of spent fuel shipments to malevolent events.
In accordance with SECY-77-1308, Procedures for Processing User Office Research Reouirements, it is requested that a work scope, schedule, and cost escimate for tne work needed to satisfy the reqUT?ementTwell as an estimate of the value effectiveness of the proposed research, be A. C. Giarratana is developed and submitted to my office for review.
the NMSS coint of contact for any clarification or amplification of the stated requirement.
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o' Nuclear Mater (( rector V. Smi th, J r., G Clif#
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NMSS Researcn Requirement to
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Evaluate the Vulnerability of 61C...c..
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Spent Fuel Snipments to f.... ~
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Malevolent Events j
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Ogj1 Q NMSS SA:EGUARDS RESEARCH REQUIREMENT TO r/ALUATE VULNERABILITIES OF SPENT FUEL SHIPMENTS TO MALEVOLENT EVi.aTS J-BACKGROUND AND STATUS OF PROBLEM At present, there are no specific physical protection requirements for
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safeguarding shipments of spent nuclear fuel.
Transport standards which
.E do exist are concerned primarily with safety, and are based on standards f-developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
There are
'four basic requirements for meeting these safety standards. These are:
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Adequate c:ntainment of radioactive material; Adequate c:ntrol of radicactive emissions;
,j Safe dissipation of decay heat; and, t
f Prevention of criticality.
In meeting safety standards requirements, the safeguards posture of spent LWR fuel shipments is enhanced, although the degree of inherent safeguards protection afforded by these requirements to some extent remains to be assessed. To complete such an assessment, NMSS needs information on the release source terms appropriate to a shioping cask exposed to an explosive
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attack in which the integrity of the cask is breached.
There are, at r
present, a number of approved and licensed spent fuel shipping containers suitable for either truck or rail transport.
These include legal weight truck packages with a capacity of one PWR or two BWR fuel assemblies; overweight tr.uck packages with a capacity for three PWR or seven SWR fuel assemblies; and rail packages of seven to ten PWR or eighteen to twenty-four E'..'E a s sembly capacities.
Freliminary, classified investigations of the penetrability cf spent fuel ship ing cask exemplars by various kinds of expl:sive attack has revealed that snipping cask waiis can be breached by a broad spectrum of explosive device c:nfigurations. While at this time conservative bounds can be ce: ermined, it is not possible to estimate precisely the radioactive release fractions that could result frem an act of sabotage involving an ex;icsive attack on a spent fuel shipping cask. Ac: rdingly, it is necessary 70 refine tb.e estimated effects of a successful attack to cbtain a more
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Investigations :: date have raised the following cuastions vis-a-vis tha p::ential vulnerabilities of spent LWR fuel shi; ping casks to a:ts cf sa:::a;e involving ex:icsives:
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What adversary resource requirements need be assembled to, with a high degree of assurance, explosively breach a leaded spent LWR fuel shipping cask?
g-What quantities of spent LWR fuel could be discharged frcm spent LWR fuel shipping casks subjected tc a variety of explosive
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attacks?
What portion of the radiation release fractions resulting from explosive breachings of spent LWR fuel shipping casks would be released in resoiracle aerosol forms?
ec rf What could the range of potential consequences of such events.in various environments?
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i What are the safeguards implications?
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RESEARCH REC'JIREMENTS A.
Functional Need
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A requirement exists for invest.igating the vulnerabilities of sp ent LWR e
fuel shipping containers t:
explosives; f:r the development of potential source terms re scurce terms.. Support is recuired for:
1.
Consecuence Assessment This capability is required to assist in the.cr=ulatien cf policy concerning safeguarding shipments of spent LWR fuel.
2.
Reculaterv Desicn This capability is required to provide a basis for supporting the develocment of safeguards regulations which may be recuired for the shipment of spent LWR fuel.
3.
Procuct Characteristics Maximum radica:tive release fractions frcm explosive ruptcres cf fully loaded spent LWR fuel shipoing casks shculd be estimated. -
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Cata should be acquired from controlled laboratory tests of expl:sive disintegration of high burnup LWR fuel pellets and Of ex? csive l
cf scale redel spent fuel shipcing casks leaded wi.th
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surrogate fuel.
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...e The data from the controlled laboratory tests should be employed to extrapolate effects, including release fractions, of explosive 2.
breschings of fully loaded, full-size spent LWR fuel shipping
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casks.
The research products should include the range of volatile
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idd/t) LWR spent fuel pin segments and pellets; the proportions of particulates arising from such disintegrations whic cask structural elements on the dynamics of explosive events, and the resulting interactiens with and breakup of spent fuel samples; the estimated degree of plate out of volatil
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explosively disintegrated LWR fuel; and radioactive rel in the spent LWR fuel explosive disintegration tests.
This research requirement product should include a data base describing the combinations of spent LWR fuel shipping containers -
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and attack modes which would likely result in releases o activity.
with the nature of damage inflicted on a shipping container, as well as with the internal cask pressures and temperatures asso-ciated with the attacks.
Emp1'cying radiological release sourca terms developed in the course cf this research program or other NRC funded research 5.
programs, ccnsequence e.stimates should be made for a variety of explosive attack medel anc associated release scurce terms.
Consequence evaluations will be develcped for 120 day, ene,
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five, and ten year-cid spent fuel.
Althcugh those portions of the data base which provide details in safeguards vulnerabilities must be classified, the research 6.
product should, to the extent possible, provide an unclassified everview and accreciation of the range of potential risks and consecuences of radioactive release fracticns in aerc:ol forms.
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Oraf ect schedule Fre!%inary evaluative data concerning results of explosi Consequence estimatas based en this test daca shculd b; ~e end cf Y79.
be reatlable by early FY20.
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_4 A decision point should be scheduled for early FYS0 for NRC staff to evaluate program results and decide whether program results warrant further research.
IMPLICATIONS FOR SAFEGUARDS PROGRNiS This is a high priority requirement, significantly impacting NRC's policy safeguarding of spent LWR fuel shipment and the develop-concerning tne ment of regulatory upgrades in this area.
RESEARCii RECUIRE.M.ENT In accordance with SECY-77-1303, Procedures for Processinc User Office Research Recuirements, it is recuested tnat a work scope, scnedule, and cos: estimate for tne work needed to satisfy the requirement, as well as an estimate of the value effectiveness of the proposed research, be developed by the Office of Research and submitted to the Office of Nuclear Material 7
Safety and Safeguards for review.
RELATED ACTIVITIES IN OTHER AGENCIEE This research requirement could by met by a joint program with the Departmen cf Energy (DGE), whose objectives in a currently funded program of similar nature appear c =plementary to those cf NRC.
The DOE program to date has involved investigating the effects of varicus kinds of explosive attack en empty, obsolete, fuel casks designs, as weTT Access to data bases being developed by D0iE as en models of these casks.
Continuation and c:crdinaticn wi:n thei-c:ntinuing effort is essential.
cf this program into studies of the effects of explosive attack en casks and cask models of currmt design containing high burnup LWR fuel, is The most recent Sandia Laborat: ries 159, which is contem:-lated by CCE.
attached, contains estirated c0sts cf the COE proposed program tests and validatien studies.
Scurce ts:,s developed from a joint undertaking could be used in cense-
-quence estimation methodolegies recently develoced, or new being developed under an NRC funded research program.
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