Training Course:
Application of the ASME Code to Radioactive Material Transportation Packaging

The goal of the course is to provide guidance for the application of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler & Pressure Vessel (B&PV) Code to packaging for the transportation or storage of high-level radioactive materials or fissile materials. The course objective is to facilitate the design, fabrication, examination, and testing of packaging that meets all the applicable ASME Code requirements and all the governing federal requirements and regulations.

The course will provide insight on the DOE/NRC packaging certification process, with examples drawn from real-world applications.

The target audience is DOE and contractor personnel, other agency personnel, and commercial packaging engineering personnel. Those responsible for design, fabrication, or evaluation of Type B or fissile material packaging, as well as preparing or reviewing
the associated safety analysis reports, would also benefit.

Staff:

Guest Lecturers:

Savannah River National Laboratory
Allen Smith, Fellow Engineer

Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Gordon Bjorkmann, Senior Technical Advisor
Kim Hardin, Project Manager, Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Division

Agenda:

Day 1: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Day 2: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Day 3: 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

This classroom course, last given in March 2008 for the 10th time, consists of technical presentations, discussions, examples, and problem solving. The emphasis is on understanding the regulatory basis, current design practice, and engineering rationale for applying the ASME Code to packaging for radioactive materials. Course highlights include lectures on the following:

• Overview of federal regulations that govern transportation packaging for radioactive materials and overview
  of DOE and NRC guidance documents, including Regulatory Guides.
• General background and structure of the Code, with emphasis on the NUPACK Code (Section III, Division 3); Section III, Division 1 and Section VIII, Division 1 are also discussed.
• Current activities in the NUPACK Code, including strain-based criteria.
• Code and non-code structural materials, containment loading and design with emphasis on design-by-analysis rules, significance of stress limits, bolt stress analysis, behavior of bolted closure, thermal stress analysis, design for hypothetical accident conditions, and brittle fracture protection.
• Design of containment internal support structures, and buckling analysis, including Code Case N-284.
• Fabrication, weld qualification, examination and test requirements, and quality assurance.
• Design qualification by physical testing and containment requirements for leakage rates.
• Problem solving to illustrate the application of the Code.

Course Materials:

All participants will receive a copy of the course instruction visuals, which are based on the ASME B&PV Code; selected key references; as well as a Certificate of Completion for the ASME Code Training Course. (Note: Participants are required to stay for the entire course in order to receive the Certificate of Completion.)

Register: Fill out the online registration page.