Compilation of Disposable Solid Waste Cask Evaluations

The Disposable Solid Waste Cask (DSWC) is a shielded cask capable of transporting, storing, and disposing of six non-fuel core components or approximately 27 cubic feet of radioactive solid waste. Five existing DSWCs are candidates for use in storing and disposing of non-fuel core components and radioactive solid waste from the Interim Examination and Maintenance Cell, ultimately shipping them to the 200 West Area disposal site for burial. A series of inspections, studies, analyses, and modifications were performed to ensure that these casks can be used to safely ship solid waste. These inspections, studies, analyses, and modifications are summarized and attached in this report. Visual inspection of the casks interiors provided information with respect to condition of the casks inner liners. Because water was allowed to enter the casks for varying lengths of time, condition of the cask liner pipe to bottom plate weld was of concern. Based on the visual inspection and a corrosion study, it was concluded that four of the five casks can be used from a corrosion standpoint. Only DSWC S/N-004 would need additional inspection and analysis to determine its usefulness. The five remaining DSWCs underwent some modification to prepare them for use. The existing cask lifting inserts were found to be corroded and deemed unusable. New lifting anchor bolts were installed to replace the existing anchors. Alternate lift lugs were fabricated for use with the new lifting anchor bolts. The cask tiedown frame was modified to facilitate adjustment of the cask tiedowns. As a result of the above mentioned inspections, studies, analysis, and modifications, four of the five existing casks can be used to store and transport waste from the Interim Examination and Maintenance Cell to the disposal site for burial. The fifth cask, DSWC S/N-004, would require further inspections before it could be used

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of binary black hole coalescences confidently observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include the effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that have already been identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total source-frame mass M > 70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz emitted gravitational-wave frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place a conservative upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0 < e ≤ 0.3 at 16.9 Gpc−3 yr−1 at the 90% confidence level

Open data from the third observing run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO

The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in 2019 April and lasting six months, O3b starting in 2019 November and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in 2020 April and lasting two weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main data set, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages

REVIEW OF FAST FLUX TEST FACILITY (FFTF) FUEL EXPERIMENTS FOR STORAGE IN INTERIM STORAGE CASKS (ISC)

Appendix H, Section H.3.3.10.11 of the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR), provides the limits to be observed for fueled components authorized for storage in the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) spent fuel storage system. Currently, the authorization basis allows standard driver fuel assemblies (DFA), as described in the FSAR Chapter 17, Section 17.5.3.1, to be stored provided decay power per assembly is {le} 250 watts, post-irradiation time is four years minimum, average assembly burn-up is 150,000 MWD/MTHM maximum and the pre-irradiation enrichment is 29.3% maximum (per H.3.3.10.11). In addition, driver evaluation (DE), core characterizer assemblies (CCA), and run-to-cladding-breach (RTCB) assemblies are included based on their similarities to a standard DFA. Ident-69 pin containers with fuel pins from these DFAs can also be stored. Section H.3.3.10.11 states that fuel types outside the specification criteria above will be addressed on a case-by-case basis. There are many different types of fuel and blanket experiments that were irradiated in the FFTF which now require offload to the spent fuel storage system. Two reviews were completed for a portion of these special type fuel components to determine if placement into the Core Component Container (CCC)/Interim Storage Cask (ISC) would require any special considerations or changes to the authorization basis. Project mission priorities coupled with availability of resources and analysts prevented these evaluations from being completed as a single effort. Areas of review have included radiological accident release consequences, radiological shielding adequacy, criticality safety, thermal limits, confinement, and stress. The results of these reviews are available in WHC-SD-FF-RPT-005, Rev. 0 and 1, ''Review of FFTF Fuel Experiments for Storage at ISA'', (Reference I), which subsequently allowed a large portion of these components to be included in the authorization basis (Table H.3.3-21). The report also identified additional components and actions in Section 3.0 and Table 3 that require further evaluation. The purpose of this report is to evaluate another portion of the remaining inventory (i.e., delayed neutron signal fuel, blanket assemblies, highly enriched assemblies, newly loaded Ident-69 pin containers, and returned fuel) to ensure it can be safely off loaded to the FFTF spent fuel storage system