Calculation and experimental studies for the spent nuclear fuel shipping cask sealing assembly

One of the safety requirements regarding the shipping cask for spent nuclear fuel is that its leak-tightness should be maintained by preserving the cask body structural integrity and the sealing system tightness under normal and accident transportation conditions. The cask under design has a cylindrical process penetration (port) in its bottomб which is sealed using a plug with a radial seal composed of two rubber O-rings. The cask sealing assembly design was justified by the ANSYS LS-DYNA code calculation results. In particular, the strains of the cask components were calculated when dropped from a height of 1 m with the sealing assembly hitting a vertical bar. The cask was concluded to be leak-tight or leaky based on the strain nature and amount. To verify the adequacy of the results, computer-aided and realistic simulations were undertaken with a 1/2.5 scale mockup cask dropped on a bar from a height of 1 m. The computational and experimental results show a good agreement in terms of the impact response accelerations (overloads) for the mockup cask and bar collision and in terms of the plastic strains for the key components of the mockup bottom port sealing assembly. This proves the adequacy of the numerical cask model that has been developed and the efficiency of the LS-DYNA simulations. The inner rubber O ring compression is reduced by the plastic strains in the cask’s bottom port area, leading to a loose inner radial seal, as shown by the calculations. But the outer seal remains leak-tight, ensuring so the mockup cask tightness. The physical test results have also confirmed that the mockup cask remains leak-tight.