SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF SPENT-FUEL TRANSPORTATION IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS

Preliminary estimates of the health effects and/or consequences resulting from a malevolent attack on a spent fuel truck shipment in downtown New York City have been made. This estimate is based upon a measured quantity (0.78 +- 0.05 g) of respirable radioactive material released from a 1/4 scale event. A linear extrapolation from the 1/4 scale event to the generic full scale event has been made and an aerosolized release fraction (0.0023 percent) of the total heavy metal inventory of a three-PWR assembly truck cask has been calculated. Although scaling of the source term parameters is tentative at this point in the program, a full scale experiment is planned in 1981 to verify the scaling methodology used in these calculations. A preliminary correlation between spent fuel and surrogate fuel source terms has been shown to be feasible and that radionuclide size partitioning can be determined experimentally. Finally, it has been shown, based on our preliminary experimental source term data, that a maximum of 25 total latent cancer fatalities could occur, assuming a release in downtown New York City. This is 20 times smaller than the latent cancer fatalities predicted in the Urban Study. (ERA citation 06:018118)

• Supplemental Notes:
  • ANS Waste Management Conference, Tucson, AZ, 23 February 1981.
• Corporate Authors:

  Sandia National Laboratories

  P.O. Box 5800
  Albuquerque, NM  United States  87185

  Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute

  Albuquerque, NM  United States 

  Department of Energy

  1000 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20585
• Authors:
  • Sandoval, R P
  • WEBER, J P
  • Newton, G J
• Publication Date: 1981

Media Info

• Pagination: 15 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aerosols; Casks; Central business districts; Crashes; Freight transportation; Grain size (Geology); Hazardous materials; Health; Health hazards; Radioactive materials; Radioactive waste disposal; Sabotage; Safety; Security; Spent reactor fuels; Transportation; Urban areas
• Geographic Terms: New York (New York)
• Old TRIS Terms: Neoplasms; Radioactive aerosols
• Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General); I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00343324
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: CONF-810217-13
• Contract Numbers: AC04-76DP00789
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 28 1982 12:00AM