Thinking inside the box
Producing packages for radioactive materials takes time, attention to detail, and a thorough commitment to quality assurance.
Jeff England, director of transportation projects for NAC International, pointed to the large stainless steel canister, which looked like a giant-sized silver dumbbell, perched on the flatbed of a semitrailer truck parked in the middle of the expansive exhibit hall in the Phoenix Convention Center. NAC, a provider of nuclear storage, transportation, and consulting services, was using the 2020 Waste Management Conference, held March 8–12 in Phoenix, Ariz., to unveil its newest transport casks, the Optimus-H and Optimus-L.
“These are a different niche,” England said of the casks, which were designed to transport radioactive materials, including remote-handled transuranic waste, high-activity intermediate-level waste, low-enriched uranium, and fissile materials. “You have a lot of [small] drum-sized packages, and you also have a lot of big packages that will hold around 10 55-gallon drums. But there’s not anything in between. We hold a 110-gallon drum capacity.”