Safety Testing and Evaluation of Radioactive Material Transport Packages

Abstract These tests adopt the packaging test programme of the IAEA's Type A packaging standard, including the water spray, free drop, puncture and stacking tests. The results of the tests on radioactive material packages under normal transport conditions show that the most frequent damage is indentation occurring at a rate of 36.7%. Splitting the outer shell is second at 6.6%, punctures occur at 4.3%, while the least frequent is deformation and breakage of the outer packaging. The total damage rate is 49.4%. The most serious cause of damage is perforation, causing 40% of cases. At the same time an on-the-spot investigation was made into the in-service damage occurrences. This showed that de-hooping of package casks was as high as 1.7% and the occurrence of splitting was 0.4%. There are few cases of holing and breaking. The total in-service damage rate was 2.2%.