Design Modifications to the HS SAFKEG® 3977A Package to Allow Transportation of Moly-99 Contents

The Croft Associates Safkeg-HS 3977A package, hereafter referred to as “HS”, is a general-purpose container for the transport of non-fissile nuclides and limited quantities of fissile nuclides as specified under United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) general licences, for non-exclusive and exclusive use. The package has been designed for transportation of a variety of solid, liquid or gaseous contents by road, rail, sea and air. The package was originally designed in 2008 and tested in 2010 to provide substantiation for the initial license application. The HS consists of a single resealable containment vessel, (design No. 3978) fabricated from stainless steel with encased depleted uranium shielding, carried within insulating cork packing in an outer stainless-steel keg, (design no. 3977).

This initial package design was successfully licenced by the NRC, confirming that the package met the requirements of 10 CFR 71 [i] and the IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material [ii]

Further to this licence award, the HS package has been subject to a further design and licensing modification to allow for the optimised transportation of Molybdenum-99 contents in liquid form.

This paper summarises the design and licensing challenges introduced by the incorporation of Mo 99 contents in liquid form, describing how these were overcome, through a combination of a bespoke shielded insert design and modifications to the containment vessel (CV) which culminated in a further successful licence award upon the HS package.