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How are the canisters transported to Japan?
A cask has been specially designed to transport the canisters of vitrified
residues, optimising constraints of weight, size and heat dissipation.
This cask is named TN 28 VT, and can hold 20 or 28 canisters of less
than 2 kW each. Its weight and size are similar to casks used for the
transport of spent fuel (TN 12, TN 17...).
The preliminary operations before shipment consist of "de-storage"
of the canisters from the La Hague interim storage facility T7, and
the completion of a final inspection, before they are loaded into the
transport casks.
The TN 28 VT transport cask has been designed by Transnucléaire,
a French subsidiary of COGEMA devoted to nuclear materials transportation.
The TN 28 VT cask is a 6.6 m high, 2.4 m diameter cylinder with a total
weight of 112 metric tonnes. It fulfils the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) regulation criteria for the so-called Type-B package,
and is fully licensed by the French and Japanese Authorities.
The shipment itself is similar to the spent fuel shipments from Japan
to La Hague. It involves the following successive steps:
- Transfer of the transport cask by road over 40 km from La Hague
to the railway terminal of Valognes. COGEMA uses a trailer with a
maximum gross weight of 160 metric tonnes, with 8 lines of double
axles, meeting all domestic regulations regarding heavy load and hazardous
material transportation.
- At the Valognes railway terminal, the cask is loaded onto a specially
equipped wagon licensed by the French railway company.
- Rail transportation over 20 km to the Cherbourg commercial port.
- At the embarkment pier of the Cherbourg port, the transport cask
is transferred to the PNTL vessel by using a pier crane.
- Sea transportation from Cherbourg to the Japanese port of Mutsu
Ogawara. BNFL is acting as COGEMA subcontractor for the sea transportation,
carried out by PNTL ships. PNTL is owned by BNFL (62,5%), COGEMA (12,5%)
and the Japanese utilities (25%).
PNTL uses one of the vessels which has routinely transported spent
fuel from Japan to France and the United Kingdom. These ships are
104 m long and 16 m wide and each ship carries sufficient amounts
of fuel to complete a journey, without any port-call. They meet the
international standards and requirements of the International Maritime
Organisation (IMO), and comply with the requirements of the Japanese
Ministry Of Transport (JMOT) as well as the British and French competent
Authorities.
PNTL ships, with more than 4.5 million miles covered without a single
incident resulting in the release of radioactivity, have a safety
record second to none. With over 20 years experience, PNTL has transported
more than 4,000 casks in over 160 shipments.
- At Mutsu-Ogawara, Nuclear Fuel Transport (NFT), as a subcontractor
to Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL), takes charge of handling the
casks using a pier crane to unload the cask from the sea vessel and
to place it on a road trailer.
- Road transportation over 5 km from the port to the Rokkasho-Mura
interim storage facility, using a heavy load (135 metric tonnes) road
transport vehicle is carried out by NFT as JNFL subcontractor.
JNFL receives the transport casks. Completing the transport operations,
the transport casks are delivered to the storage facility and the canisters
are removed for inspection and placement in the storage area.
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