The Transport of Front-end Materials: Trends and Challenges for the Next Decade

Abstract

For several decades all the front end nuclear industry involved in transport operations around the world relied mainly on packagings developed in the 1970s in the United States of America and used everywhere by all means of transport to the satisfaction of the authorities. Recently, the industry has been confronted with licensing problems of some 30B overpacks as well as for packagings used for the transport of fresh PWR and BWR fuel assemblies and UO₂ powder, etc. The upgrading of existing regulations may affect the present conditions of utilisation of the 48Y cylinders for the transport of natural UF₆. This paper details the actions which have been taken by the industry to improve this situation in order to continue to perform the transport of fresh fuel material smoothly.