1/28/13, Sandia National Labs: About: History: Exhibits

Sandia
National
Laboratories

The History of Transportation Technology Programs at Sandia

WE CRASH, BURN, AND CRUSH

Background

Even prior to the beginning of the nuclear age in 1945 with the test detonation of the "Fat Man" atomic bomb at the Trinity site in
southern New Mexico, the safe packaging and transportation of nuclear materials was already a prime national concern.
Nuclear materials such as uranium and plutonium had to be transported secretly and safely to the super-secret laboratory of the
Manhattan Engineering District at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Here, between 1943 and 1945, the most talented scientists and
engineers in the world constructed the first atomic weapons.

The subsequent peacetime use of nuclear power for the generation of electricity resulted in radioactive waste byproducts such
as plutonium that were stored on site at the nuclear power plants. While projected repositories for long-term storage of
radioactive waste are being planned, both low- and high-level radioactive materials on occasion must be moved safely and
economically. Movement to repository sites is accomplished by a combination of truck, rail, ship, and air. The Department of
Energy (DOE) directs transportation activities including cask development technology for use in single or multi modal (a
combination of land, water, and air) transport. In 1978, Sandia National Laboratories was selected as the lead contractor for
basic transportation technology.

Early Research and Regulatory Development (1936-1978)

The U.S. Postal Service first established regulations governing shipment of radioactive materials when it was discovered that
exposure of photographic film to ionizing radiation from materials being shipped through the U.S. mail was clouding the film. The
basic regulation governing domestic shipment of radioactive substances was adopted on July 13, 1936. This was followed by
Railway Express regulations requiring the "segregation" of radioactive parcels shipped by rail.

World War II and the development of nuclear weapons by 1945 resulted in greatly increased and varied shipments of
radioactive materials relating to national defense. These shipments were under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army's Manhattan
Engineer District, which developed the atomic bomb.

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 regulated the shipment of radioactive materials to protect the health and safety of the public.
The Act placed responsibility for the enforcement of transportation regulations equally with the Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC) and the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).

In the 1960s, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) sponsored theoretical and practical work on criticality, early "operations
research" studies, and tests using scale models of heavy casks. Sandia Corporation, one of the facilities involved in these studies,
conducted fire tests.

In 1963, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a United Nations agency, published its regulations governing
transport for worldwide application. These were based, in part, on AEC/ICC orders and regulations. Later, both the AEC and
ICC published revisions to the Radioactive Materials Regulations which made the U.S standards for transport consistent with
those of the IAEA.

Sandia's Full-Scale Crash Tests, 1975-1977

Tn the early 1970s, the AEC wanted to validate the safety of existing package design regulations. To this end, Sandia conducted
a series of full-scale tests on truck, rail, and air transportation packages to obtain accurate data on the packages’ response to
severe transportation accidents.

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1/28/13, Sandia National Labs: About: History: Exhibits

The Transportation Technology Center

In 1978, DOE officials surveyed the various DOE laboratories with the intent of selecting a lead laboratory for conducting basic
transportation technology development. The Transportation Technology Center (TTC) was established that same year with
Sandia as the lead contractor, largely as a result of the effectiveness of the full-scale crash tests and the design, analysis, and
testing technology that supported the effort.

TRUPACTI

Studies on a transport system for defense transuranic (TRU) waste were initiated at Sandia in 1978. A cask was designed for
the shipment of low-level radioactive materials from DOE sites to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New
Mexico. The waste is in diverse forms such as rags, paper tools, large equipment, floor sweepings, and clothing. Preliminary
design of a shipping container was completed in 1981 by General Atomic (now GA Technologies) under contract to Sandia. Six
1/4-scale models of the containers were built for testing, and full-scale tests were conducted on the panels of the containers and
the transport drums.

TRUPACT II

(to be used for WIPP transport) was tested but not designed at Sandia. Shown here is a full-scale model just prior to a drop test.

NUPAC 125-B
This is a view of the one-quarter-scale NUPAC 125-B (TMI) cask rebounding during a drop test in 1985. It was designed to
contain fuel debris that had been removed from the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident site.

BUSS Cask

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