Safety analysis for severe accidents anticipated during truck transport of uranium fresh fuel and raw material (Contract research)

Nomura, Yasushi*; Takahashi, Satoshi*; Okuno, Hiroshi  

Safety demonstration analyses were conducted under contract with the Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry of Japan from 2001 to 2004 for the purpose of assuaging public jitters concerning the transport. The current transport routes and the past accident/incident records were surveyed, three accident scenarios, i.e., a fall from an overpass, an open fire after collision with an oil tank trailer, a fire caused by collision with 2-ton truck inside a tunnel were set up. Mechanical damages and thermal failures were analyzed using the finite element codes LS-DYNA and ABAQUS. In addition, criticality safety analyses were made using the continuous energy Monte Carlo code MVP for the transport casks damaged in reference to the previous mechanical and thermal analyses. Thus, the integrity of packaging against leakage of radioactive material was shown in the case of severe accidents anticipated to occur during transportation without any harmful effect to the public and environment.