An Overview of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s Transportation Program 2016

Abstract

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (NWMO) technical program is preparing to safely and securely transport 4.2 million used nuclear fuel bundles from interim storage locations in Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec and New Brunswicktoone repository to be located within one of 4 siting regions. Road and rail modes will be used in combination to accomplish this mission beginning in 2043 and lasting over fifty years.The NWMO technical program has three principlecomponents: transportation-logistics, packaging and safety-risk management. This paper describes theNWMO program to plan and implement this safe and secure transportation system. To be discussed are:Completion of road and rail system assessmentsand selection of primary and alternative routes within Ontario and Manitoba, Quebec and New Brunswick. Additionally, identify where intermodal transfer between modes could take place to take advantage of the positive characteristics for each mode.Development of a multi-criteria decision analysis model (Route Logistics Analysis Tool) to comparesafety and operating criteria to identify relative route performance, potential impacts and opportunities for optimization.A safetyassessment for primary and alternative road and rail routesto evaluate the transportation safety characteristics, assist in describing the impact NWMO transportation could have on the routes and provide a basis for developing future operating protocols.Three certified Type B (U) transportation packages make up the fleet for this program, the Used Fuel Transportation Package, the Dry Storage Container-Transportation Package and the Basket Transportation Package. Improvements to the first two packages are being reviewed and tested. The third package is a new design to transport used fuel stored in AECL designed round baskets by road or rail.Keywords: Transportation logistics, package development,safety assessment, regulatory, integrated planning and large shipping campaign