CASTOR® BR3: Design of a Transport and Storage Cask for Spent Fuel From a Belgian Nuclear Power Plant

Abstract The CASTOR® BR3 cask has been designed and manufactured to accomodate irradiated fuel (U and MOX) from the BR3 test reactor at the nuclear research centre SCK/CEN in Dessel near Mol, Belgium, which is currently being dismantled. The CASTOR® BR3 is designed as a Type B(U)F package for transport and will be licensed in Belgium. In addition, the CASTOR® BR3 needs a license as a storage cask to be operated in an interim cask storage facility. To obtain these licenses, the cask design has to observe the international regulations for the safe transport of radioactive material as well as the special requirements for the cask storage. The CASTOR® BR3 is a member of the CASTOR® family of spent fuel casks, delivered by the German company GNB. In this way, the cask has such typical features as the following: • monolithic cask body made of ductile cast iron; • double-lid system consisting of primary and secondary lid for long-term interim storage of the fuel. This family of casks has been used for over 20 years for transport and storage of spent fuel. In this paper, the IAEA regulatory requirements for transport casks are summarized and it is shown by selected examples how these requirements have been converted into the cask design and the analyses performed for the cask. Finally, the cask features for an interim storage period of up to 50 years will be spotlighted. Main topics are the evaluation of the long term behaviour of selected cask components and the cask monitoring system for the surveillance of the leak tightness of the cask during the storage period.