SPENT FUEL TRANSPORTATION : THE FRENCH EXPERIENCE

摘要

COGEMA has been involved in the whole nuclear fuelcycle for about 20 years (from mining of uranium to plutoniumrecycling in MOX fuel).The spent fuel, removed from the core of a nuclear powerplant, is made of 3 to 5% fission products, but also of uranium(94 to 96 %) and plutonium (1%) which can both be recoveredthrough reprocessing and recycling.Spent fuel transportation, acting as a link between nuclearpower plants and reprocessing plants, appears therefore as a keycomponent of the nuclear industry. Between 1966 and the endof 1994, 4 600 spent fuel casks transports were performedsmoothly and safely.Transport safety relies basically on the packaging (adaptedto the potential risk of transported materials). The use ofdedicated casks designed to meet international regulations istherefore required (IAEA’s Regulations for the safe transport ofradioactive materials) and various types of packaging takinginto account chemical and physical nature, activity and toxicityof the nuclear materials have been developed.There are industrial, type A and type B packaging. Spentfuel is transported in Type B packaging, which must resist tovarious accidental conditions (fire, drop, puncture). Beforegetting the licensing, the packaging model must show its fullcompliances with the regulatory requirements.Each country has to implement international regulationsand IAEA’s recommendations.Transportation is a major activity for the COGEMA Group,which has developed a comprehensive transport organizationsystem.COGEMA acts as the general co-ordinator, specifying thetasks to be performed to its various partners such asTRANSNUCLEAIRE which is specialized in cask engineeringand fabrication. The French Type B packaging (TN 12 cask)has a loading capacity of 12 PWR elements and its overallweight is 102 tons. In 1995, several hundred of spent fueltransports have been performed internationally using casks ofthe TN12 or TN17 family.COGEMA has established technical specifications so as toclearly define the mission of the shipping agent companies(planning, preparing, and organizing all elementary operationsrequired for package transportation). This general organizationis able to guarantee the efficiency of all parties. Taking intoaccount global issues such as environmental and energyresource management, one can say that the French spent fueltransportation industry has demonstrated its global reliability.