ANSTO continued its program of removing more than 40 years of research reactor spent fuel from its Lucas Heights site.
A shipment of 308 used fuel elements of United Kingdom origin was loaded at Port Botany onto a specially fitted vessel for transportation to the La Hague, France, reprocessing plant of Compagnie Generale des Matieries Nucleaires, COGEMA.
It was the fourth shipment of spent fuel from Lucas Heights and the second since September 1997, when the Commonwealth Government announced it would provide funding to ANSTO to ship overseas its inventory of spent fuel.
The shipments made previously were:
- 1963: 150 spent fuel elements to Dounreay, Scotland.
- April 1996: 114 spent fuel elements, also to Dounreay, Scotland.
- May 1998: 240 fuel elements of United States origin to the US Department of Energy's Savannah River site, South Carolina.
Last night's shipment was the first made under the terms of a contract signed by ANSTO and COGEMA in January, 1999. It provides for the reprocessing in France of spent fuel arising from the operations of the High Flux Australian Reactor, HIFAR, up to and including its permanent shutdown, scheduled for late 2005.
Wastes from the reprocessing will be incorporated into a highly stable glass matrix suitable for long term storage. A total of some six cubic metres of waste will be returned from COGEMA to Australia from the total reprocessing program, which will go on over a number of years. The spent fuel removal program also includes continuing repatriation of elements of US origin to the United States.
Environment Australia and Australia's nuclear regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, ARPANSA, approved arrangements for the shipment.
Co-ordination and consultation was also required with an extensive number of Commonwealth and New South Wales authorities. The shipment was required to meet all international, national and State standards, conventions and legislation regarding the transportation of radioactive materials. Such materials are transported throughout the world on a routine basis.
ANSTO currently has an inventory of more than 1100 used fuel elements, with some 38 a year added to it from reactor operations. About 450 are of United States origin ANSTO's used research reactor elements are each 600 mm long and 100 mm in diameter.
Each contains about 150 grams of uranium, which is alloyed with aluminium. The 308 used fuel elements are being transported in four custom-built, heavily shielded transport casks. They were loaded with the used fuel underwater at ANSTO, drained, vacuum dried and hermetically sealed.
Each was then placed within a specially strengthened approved shipping container and transported by road to a special purpose ship, which carries no other cargo, at Port Botany for non-stop transport to France.
The amount of radiation detectable on the outside of the heavily shielded transport casks is extremely small. By remaining constantly in the vicinity of the cask 24 hours a day for a week a person would be exposed to only half the amount of radiation they receive from natural sources in a year.
The route for the transport to a Sydney wharf was along major Sydney suburban roadways, with the precise route and timing decided by the NSW Police Service. In keeping with international conventions to which Australia is a party, route details and timing for the shipment were not published in advance.
Packaging Standards and the Transport Casks The transport of radioactive materials, including the used fuel element shipment by ANSTO, is governed by the provisions of the "Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material" issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations organisation based in Vienna.
These Regulations were first issued at the request of the United Nations in 1961, and have been updated regularly. They have been adopted into the Australian Code of Practice for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Substances 1990 and are incorporated into the State and Territory Radiation Control Acts, including that in force in NSW.
They have also been incorporated into all the major international conventions and requirements controlling the transport of potentially dangerous materials, including the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Dangerous Goods Code.
The objective of the Regulations is to protect the public, transport workers and property from both the direct and indirect effects of radiation during the transport of radioactive materials.
The sea transport arrangements will be in accordance with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Dangerous Goods Code and the IMO/United Nations Environment Program/IAEA Code of Practice for the Safe Carriage of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, Plutonium and High Level Radioactive Wastes in Flasks on Board Ships 1993. The transport vessel complies fully with the Irradiated Nuclear Fuel Code of the IMO.
Type B packages, the type used by ANSTO for transporting the used fuel, must be able to withstand the effects of a severe accident without releasing their radioactive contents. They must meet stringent leak tightness provisions and satisfy mechanical then a thermal test and then a water immersion test. There are also drop tests that must be met, one from a height of nine nmetres onto an unyielding surface, and a puncture test onto a steel bar.
The thermal test subjects the package to a hydrocarbon fuel/air fire with an average flame temperature of 800 degrees C for 30 minutes. The water test is that the package be immersed under 15 metres of water for not less than eight hours, and at 200 metres for not less than one hour.
Type B packages have survived some extreme tests, the most spectacular being a British ndemonstration in which a diesel locomotive pulling three carriages was smashed into a nuclear fuel cask at 165 kilometres/hour. The cask suffered only superficial damage and its integrity was nmaintained. The locomotive was destroyed.
Liability
The Commonwealth of Australia and ANSTO have entered into a Deed of Indemnity, under which nthe Commonwealth guarantees the payment of any judgments against ANSTO arising from radiationrelated nclaims. nThe Paris Convention and, if applicable, the Brussels Convention, cover damage suffered on the high seas. This would enable a person who suffered injury or damage from the radioactive characteristics of the cargo to recover compensation. Liability is backed up by insurance.
In some 40 years experience of transporting thousands of such shipments of radioactive materials around the world in accordance with the IAEA Transport Regulations, there have been no deaths or injuries incurred as a result of the radioactive nature of the material.