ML19344A717

Responds to Questions Re Loading of Super Tiger W/Waste Drums,Raised in AEC .Crates Inherently Safe from Criticality Since No More than 5 G Fissile Fuel Contained Per Cubic Ft of Crates.Two Illegible Drawings Encl

ML19344A717
Person / Time
Site:	07000364, 07106400
Issue date:	01/06/1972
From:	Reitler E BABCOCK & WILCOX, BABCOCK & WILCOX CO.
To:	Nussbaumer D US ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (AEC)
Shared Package
ML19344A715	List: ML19344A713 ML19344A716 ML19344A717
References
NUDOCS 8008210615
Download: ML19344A717 (6)

Text

n..

w u,.a..

o y o _3 g y<

./

RV"

l Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation a subsidiary of Bstdeck !.WMcox 609 Nor:h Warren Avenue. A;-r :. F2 Telephone: (412) 842 0111 January 6,.1972 United States Atcaic Energy Commission 4915 St. Elmo Place, Bethesda, Maryland - 20014 Attention:

Mr. Donald A. Nussbaumer, Chief

~

Fuel Fabrication and Transportation Branch Division of Mat' rials Licensing c

Subject:

Our Application Dated 17 September, 1971, Loading of " Super Tiger" With Waste Drums.

t'

References:

Your letter cated 18 November 1971

Dear Mr. Nussbaumer:

The following is in answer to the questions you raised in your letter dated 18 November 1971:

O

^EC oee tiee 1:

^ eec1eer eefetr ene1 eie te demeestrete tuet critice11tv 7

vill not occur as a consequence of damage to the. inner containers.

The

/

analysis should consider whether the contents of a sufficient number of i

damage containers could be accidently expelled and assembled to cause

, criticality.

Damage to the containers is shown in the Unabridged Report i

C2378, " Engineering Evaluation of the Super Tiger Overpack for the Shipment of Large Quantitiet, of Hazardous Materials", submitted May 28, 1971,as j

Appendix Q to Docket No.70-337.

i i

Answer 1:

It is not necessary for NUMEC to present a new nuclear safety ~

analysis for the following reasons:

t 1.

The Super Tiger package (Forty two 17C or 1711 fif ty five gallon containers cach limited to a maximum of 200 grams of fissile fuel and a maximum of 200 pounds of graphite) is safe from nuclear I

-criticality based on a Rocky Flats r,eport RFP-1411 (Ref. 3, p. 27-l

30) which demonstrates the safety of a's'imilar package of at least 250 undamaged drums containing a maximum of 200 grams Pu-239 per drum.

i.

2.

The drums used by NUMEC are either 16 gage or 18 gage thick.

The report C2378 for Super Tiger overpack (Ref. 2, p. 63-65) shows that during an impact test, 22 gage drums showed considerabic deformati:-

l and some drums had reuptured sen=s through which liquid had escap.

whereas 36 gage drums with removable coverc expr r!< wd little m.

deformation.

It is argued that a plastic drum liner would provida t.

}

assurance ' against spillage f rom any drums.

NUMEC waste containers q

have a plastic drum 1.ncr und in addition, do not carry any liqu0.

hf o

.8008210

e:

m Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation January 6, 1972 2

solid waste is Icss liable to escape.

Drums of about 19 gage

~

thicknesses have been reported to be undamaged by Rocky. Flats (Ref. 3) based on an engineering evaluation of Mr.

F. E. Adcock (Ref. 4) for 19 gage

• drums contained in the AMTEX railroad car; therefore, damage to 16 or 18 gage drums in the Super Tiger overpack is not credibic.

3.

The crates are inherently safe from criticality since it contains no more than 5 grams of fissile fuel per cubic foot of the crates.

This is an ever safe concentration and is very low compared to the drum concentration of about 28 ges/cu.ft.

The contents of each crate are essentially large sized, line generated contaminated vaste.

This does not create an accountability problem for critic-ality and in unlikely event of its getting expelled, the waste would retain its distributed contamination, far from causing criticality.

The crates can be intermixed with the drum lattice since it leads to a less reactive arrangement as per the Rocky.

Flats report (Ref. 3, p. 30).

3 AEC Question 2:

Confirmation that the maxicum decay heat generation per package will be in agreement with the conditions for the Super q])

Tiger package or a thermal analysis which substantiates the revised thermal loading.

j Answer 2:

Numec proposes the shipment of two types of drum loadings, l

ddentified in the following tables as Type 1 and Type 2.

From those tables it is shown that the Fuel Type 1 loading of the l

" Super Tiger" is safe providing no morc than 35 drums loaded

~

j with Type 1 Fuel are loaded into the " Super Tiger".

Drums -

j loaded with Fuel Type 2 are safe when 42 drums (a maximum,

-4 loading) are put into the Super Tiger.

The contents of the i

drums have been determined by Gamma-Spectroscopy barrel-scan.

l Very truly yours, h

g E. K. Reitler, Manager Health, Safety and Licensing

/ame j

f Attachments

'I (2)'

v I

4

-r f'

,m.s.

t w

O m

o TABLE 1:

Plutonium Fuel

• Isotope

% per gm of Pu Type 1 Type 2 t

Pu

-238' O.109 Pu - 239 88.280 90.80 Pu - 240 9.410 8.,30 Pu - 241 1.410 0.61 Pu - 242 0.191.

0.04 5

Am - 241 0.600 0.25

.QQ i

4

2

.I

• Amount of Am - 241 is obtained from the 6-decay of

'Pu - 241 Decay time of about 6 years is assumed

.[.

prior to shipment in Super Tiger.

?

1 6'

e

(

p l;

~

.p -

_.: L

~

v:

%.r-e m.

~

' TABLE 2:

Isotenes Versus Encrr.v Release

• Isotope At.vt.

, Half life Mev/ decay Total Energ;.

A-T, years Q

Release a,8,Y Q, vatt/g=

Pu-238 238.050 86

5. 592 (a-decay) 5.80 x 10~

Pu-239 239.052 24400 5.243(o-decay) 1.91 x 10-3 Pu-240 240.054 6580

5. 255 (a-decay) 7.06 x 10

~3

. Pu-241 241.056 13.2

0. 0208 (8-decay) 1.39 x'10

~2 Pu-241 241.057 458

5. 640 (a-decay) 1.08 x 10~1

• Q

= 2.121 x 10 9 Watts /gm.

a T

AT (O

where Q Energy,per disintegration, Mev

=

. f

!' j A

Atomic wt.

=

T y Half life, years-

.(

l.

e

.,s.

p s

I i

l sp

.x

.}

!=

l'

.. [1

e

^

ABLE 3:

Typical Decay Heat from NU.'IEC Fuel (1) _ Fuel Type 1:

~

Isotopc' Q

gm - fraction Heat Load T

watt /gm

, of isotope Q. watt /gm of Pu

-1 Pu-238 5.80 x 10 0.Q011 0.638 x 10-3

~3 Pu-239-1.91 x 10 0.8828 1.686 x 10-3

~3 Pu-240

'7.06 x 10 0.0941 0.664 x 10~

-2 Pu.241 1.39 x 10 0.0141 0.196 x 10

~

~I Am-241

, 1.08 x 10 0.0060 0.648 x 10~3

-3 Total 3.832 x 10 watt /gm of Pu Watt / drum = 3.832 x 10~ x 200 = 0.7665 35 drums will produce 26.83 vatts

({])

(2)

Fuel Typt 2:

Isotope Q_

gm-fraction Q

~3 Pu-239 1.91 x 10 0.9087

1. 736 x 10-3

-3 Pu-240 7.06 x 10 0.0823 0.581 x 10-3 l

-2 Pu-241 1.39 x 10 0.0061 0.083 x 10

~

'Am-241 1.08 x 10 0.0025 0.270 x 10

~

~3

)

e i

~

Total 2.670 x 10 Watts / drum = 2.670 x 10" x 200 = 0.5346 i

j 42 drums will produce 22.45 watts l

f' l()

s

^

.t

'f**L h-ee w9m7 0

ez--

+

n.

.o,

• REFERENCES Ref. 1:

A.E.C. 's letter to NUMEC (Att:

Mr. E. K. Reitler, Jr.), dated November 18,1971 (DML:CEM 70-364) for an amendment to SNM-414 for. Super Tiger P'ackage.

" Engineering Evaluation of the Super Tiger Overpack Designed Ref. 2:

for the Shipment of Large Quantities of Hazardous Materials,"

Report C2378, Protective Packaging, Inc., May 4, 1970.

"ATMX-600 Railcars for Radioactive Waste Shipments," RFP-1411, Ref. 3:

January 7, 1970.

Ref. '4:

Engineering Evaluation- "No. 741 First Stage in ICC-17C 55 Gallon Drums," F.E. Adcock, Rocky Flats Division, The Dow Chemical Company, December 4, 1967.

Ref. 5:

Letter to Mr. Nussbaumer of A.E.C. from Mr. E. K. Reitler, Jr.

of NUMEC on September 17, 1971 for DOT SP 6400, " Loading of Super Tiger With Waste Drums".

Ref. 6:

' Personal communication with Mr. H. D. Warren of LRC-A for decay energy release.

Ref. 7:

'}

C. M. Lederer, J. M. Hollander and I. Perlman,

'lTables of Isotopes", Sixth Edition.

t g

0

,s.

e' f

{

.j

.]

- !.l'

/

h 1

16936 g

a s _b'

.DOCU,-,_

s m

i 1

M M

M l

AO.--

NO. OF PAGES N h1a/3 REASON-O PAGE ILLEGIBLE:

C HARD COPY FILED AT:

PDR CF OTHER O BETTER COP < REoVESTED ON 1

/

GE TOO LARGE TO FILM.

O HARD COPV FILED A]

CF OTHER

@ FILMED ON APERTURE CARD NO.FOO72 /Obl.)

es-f/

_