Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Nuclear Engineering

Sub-Department

College of Engineering and Computing

First Advisor

Travis W. Knight

Abstract

The Holtec HI-STORM 100 spent fuel storage system is an intermediate storage mechanism for SNF assemblies. Long term licensing and storage requires consideration of material degradation of the stainless steel multi-purpose canister holding the spent fuel. This material degradation is predicted to take the form of environmentally assisted cracking on weld interfaces of the stainless steel cylinder. Several of these spent fuel storage arrays are located in coastal environments. These sites include both the Hope Creek and Diablo Canyon nuclear power stations. A multi-sensory robotic package is being designed for non-destructive assay of the cask annular environment. It will be necessarily exposed to radiation and high temperature. To inform the design of the robotic probe, radiation strength and spectra are modeled in SCALE 6.2 utilizing both ORIGEN-ARP and ORIGAMI for 0-D and 1-D characterization of spent fuel assembly radiation. Radiation transport is modeled within MCNP 6.1 for the case of both photons and neutrons in the annular environment and beyond. Radiation dose rate to operators and electronics was finely considered in regards to the insertion and operation of the probe within the cask annulus. This allows predictive quantification of radiation damage within components of the robotic probe. When planning robotic inspection procedure, accurate depiction of radiation source terms and transported radiation fields is a major concern. Predictions are made in relation to the shielded field of mixed species radiation for the purpose of operator and robotic interaction within the HI-STORM 100 system at different points in storage life.

Rights

© 2016, C. Ryan Priest

Download

Share

COinS