Development of Shipping Package Drop Analysis Capability at Westinghouse

Westinghouse Electric Company LLC1 is currently developing a new shipping package for transporting nuclear fuel to customer sites. This new design is designated as the TravellerTM shipping package.2 One of the many licensing requirements for the Traveller package is to demonstrate it will always maintain the fuel assembly in a (nuclear) non-critical configuration after being dropped from 9 meters onto an unyielding surface and from 1 meter onto a 15 mm diameter pin. In meeting these regulations, package orientation(s) which will most damage: 1. the fuel assembly; and, 2. the shipping package must be considered. Westinghouse began the Traveller design effort with a need to supplement in-house analytical capability with experienced LS-DYNA consultants. However, the Traveller analysis was not simply “handed off.” Rather, a Westinghouse analyst worked closely with these consultants. This close interaction resulted in a shipping package model which included all features relevant to crashworthiness and correctly represented the final design. The resulting model was instrumental in the success of the drop tests and licensing efforts.