Evaluation of spent fuel transport cask from the radiological point of view

Abstract

Abstract As a perspective plan to transport the spent fuel of material testing of research reactor (MTR) from the temporary storage to permanent storage, choosing an adequate cask is very important to ensure the safety precautions during the transport process. Latin America cask is one of the transportation cask types may be chosen to transport the spent fuel elements where it was designed to transport the irradiated fuel for MTR and the TRIGA research reactors. Therefore, it must be evaluated from the neutronic, radiological, and thermal points of view. The cask has internal diameter of 60 cm which make it possible to content 21 of spent fuel elements of MTR. This study aims to evaluate dose rate distribution around the cask after loading with 21 of MTR spent fuel elements which have been stored for 5-years as a minimal decay time in the temporary storage. For this, MCNP5 code was used to determine the dose rate in the radial and axial directions around the cask. The results show that the dose rates at the cask surface and at 200 cm from the surface are lower than the permissible transportation limits.