Japanese Codes and Standards for Dual Purpose Metal Casks for Spent Nuclear Fuel

The first Japanese spent fuel interim storage facility away from a reactor site is about to be commissioned in Mutsu City, Aomori Prefecture. In designing, licensing and construction of the Dual Purpose Casks (DPCs, for transport and storage) for this facility, codes and standards established by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) and by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) have been applied.The AESJ established the first standard for DPCs as “Standard for Safety Design and Inspection of Metal Casks for Spent Fuel Interim Storage Facilities” in 2002 (later revised in 2010). The standard provides the design requirements to maintain the basic safety functions of DPCs, namely containment, heat removal, shielding, criticality prevention and the structural integrity of the cask itself and of the spent fuel cladding during transport and storage. Inspection methods and criteria to ensure maintenance of the basic safety functions and structural integrity over every stage of operations involving DPCs including pre-shipment after storage are prescribed as well. The structural integrity criteria for major DPC components refer to the rules provided by the JSME.JSME completed the structural design and construction code (the Code) for DPCs as “Rules on Transport/Storage Packagings for Spent Nuclear Fuel” in 2001 (later revised in 2007). Currently, the scope of the rules cover the Containment Vessel, Basket, Trunnions and Intermediate Shell as major components of DPCs. Rules for these components are based on those for components of nuclear power plants (NPP) with similar safety functions, but special considerations based on their shapes, loading types and required functions are added.The Code has differences from that for NPP components with considerations to DPC characteristics;- The primary stress and the secondary stress generated in Containment Vessels shall be evaluated under Service Conditions A to D (from ASME Sec III, Div.1).- Stress generated in the seal region lid bolts of Containment Vessels shall not exceed yield strength under Service Conditions A to D in order to maintain the containment function.- Fatigue analysis on Baskets is not required, and Trunnions can be designed only for Service Conditions A and B with special stress limits consistent with conventional assessment methods for transport packages.- Stress limits for earthquakes during storage are specified.- Ductile cast iron with special fracture toughness requirements can be used as a material for Containment Vessels.DPC specific considerations in standards and rules will be focused on in this paper. Additionally, comparison with the ASME Code will be discussed.Copyright © 2014 by ASME