Orano and Urenco are collaborating in the development of a new cylinder designed for the transport of uranium enriched up to twenty percent. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has just approved the doubling of capacity of Orano’s enriched uranium transport package.
Orano and Urenco have signed a consortium agreement to work on testing and development of the new 30B-X designed to transport uranium.
Orano said that the new cylinder is designed for future transport of low enriched uranium plus (LEU+) and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel transport. Upcoming new fuel designs and the evolution of the small modular reactor (SMR) market require the development of solutions for the transport of uranium enriched up to twenty percent. No such transportation system is currently available on the market.
The 30B-X cylinder utilizes the innovative DN30-X packaging. This DN30-X packaging combines the properties of the existing DN30-X overpack with the new 30B-X cylinder. The criticality control system (CCS) is inserted to ensure safe transport with control rods with neutrophilic characteristic.
There are two versions of the 30B-X cylinder for optimized transport capacity depending on the level of uranium enrichment. They have a different number of CCS control rods. One module has a capacity of thirty-two hundred pounds of uranium enriched up to ten percent. The other module has a capacity of twenty-eight hundred pounds of uranium enriched up to twenty percent.
The DN30-X package was licensed in March of this year by the NRC. The DN30-X is currently being licensed in France and the process is expected to be completed in 2024. The DN30-X will be licensed in other countries as requested.
Two prototypes of the 30B-X were delivered to two enrichment facilities for testing the integration of the cylinders into their plant processes. One facility is at a Urenco enrichment site and the other is at Orano’s Tricastin site in France.
Orano’s new high-capacity basket (HCB) for its Versa-Pac VP-55 enriched uranium transport package has been approved by the NRC. The HCB allows two five-inch diameter pipe containers to be secured inside of only one. At the maximum length of twenty one inches, each pipe can be filled to capacity or contain two standard quart shipping bottles of material.
Orano said that its VP-55 Type AF package was specifically designed and licensed to meet the increasing need for transporting ten percent LEU+ and up to twenty percent HALEU material for fueling an increasing number of advance reactor designs.
Amir Vexler is the CEO of Orano USA. He said, “Based on our decades of nuclear fuel cycle expertise, Orano is increasingly involved in helping develop the advanced reactor supply chain with innovations and enhancements to our products and services. Doubling the capacity of our versatile VP-55 package creates immediate value for customers shipping a variety of nuclear materials. We are excited to support the development of advanced reactors, which this package would enable."
The Versa-Pak is licensed for shipment of tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel, uranium oxide, uranium metal, uranyl crystals and other uranium compounds including uranium carbides, uranyl fluorides, and uranyl carbonates, uranium hexafluorides and thorium.