NRC Approves Spent Fuel Cask

The Energy Daily reported on November 16 that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had approved a new shipping cask. Designed by General Atomics of San Diego, CA, the container would carry spent fuel from nuclear reactors to waste-processing and disposal sites.

NRC issued General Atomics a certificate of compliance for the cask, known as the GA-4, to transport a variety of pressurized water reactor fuel types. The predominantly steel, 288-inch-long, 40-inch-diameter cask can transport up to four irradiated spent fuel assemblies--four times the capacity of its predecessors.

The cask's maximum weight with contents is 27.5 tons, within the Department of Transportation's legal weight for travel on any U.S. highway.

Production of the cask, which will take several years, is expected to begin as soon as the U.S. Department of Energy approves an interim or permanent nuclear-waste-storage facility.