STOWING OF PACKAGES CONTAINING RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS DURING THEIR ROAD TRANSPORTATION WITH TRUCKS FOR LOADS UP TO 38 TONS

A compilation and a coordination of available standards, regulatory prescriptions and directives on stowing are first presented. Then generated forces resulting from road vehicle deceleration in accidential conditions are searched. The investigation shows that higher dangerous materials transportation probabilities essentially concern front end impacts (51.4%) and side on impacts (19%). These accidents occur with a speed of about 80 km/h before the impact and 50 km/h during the crash. During the latter, deceleration values ranging from 20 to 100g could be reached, the mean value could be about 30g. A mathematical model is developed. Experiments are realized with the aims on the one hand, to verify the results obtained from a mathematical model of accidents and on the other hand to collect experimental values allowing to work out a code of good practice for the stowing of radioactive materials packages having a maximum weight of about 20 tons. A number of 8 tests has been performed with two types of packagings: lower and higher center of gravity in front end and side on impacts. In case of a front end impact, the stowing system must be able to absorb entirely the kinetic energy generated by the package deceleration. This means that a tie-down system according to the 2g - 1 g - 1 g standard is convenient, but chocks acting perpendicularly to the direction of the traffic are to be prohibited.