National waste terminal storage program potential problems in the waste transportation system

Potential problems are identified which may impact the planning, organization, and operation of nuclear waste transportation systems serving federal repositories. These system-level problems have the potential of seriously interfering with the overall OWI Transportation/Logistics Study objective of having a viable nuclear waste transportation system in 1985. This report includes recommended action and priority judgments to address these problems and minimize their impact. The potential problems identified as most important have consequences which may impact the overall state of future preparedness for transporting nuclear waste. Other important concerns relate to the imposition of unnecessarily severe and costly restrictions on nuclear waste transportation, public and carrier acceptance, and the involvement of interested parties in planning and decision-making. The major recommendation of this report is that the planning and development of the waste transportation system should be controlled by a central planning activity which anticipates the impact of uncertainties and undesirable events. (ERA citation 03:054708) Document type: Repor

Assessment of research and development (R and D) needs in LPG safety and environmental control

The report characterizes the LPG industry covering all operations from production to end use, reviews current knowledge of LPG release phenomenology, summarizes the status of current LPG release prevention and control methodology, and identifies any remaining safety and environmental problems and recommends R and D strategies that may mitigate these problems. (ACR

Energy material transport, now through 2000, system characteristics and potential problems. Task 3. Final report - petroleum transportation

This report contains a summary characterization of the petroleum transportation system and an assessment of some potential problems that may impact petroleum transportation in the United States during the balance of the century. A primary purpose of this task is to provide information and perspective that contribute to the evaluation of research and development needs and priorities in future programs. The system characterization in Section 3 includes a review of petroleum product movements, modal operations and comparisons, and transportation regulations and safety. This system overview summarizes domestic production and consumption scenarios to the year 2000. A median scenario based on published projections shows that the US will probably rely on foreign oil to supply between 40 and 50 percent of domestic petroleum needs throughout the balance of the century. Potential problems in petroleum transportation were identified by the analysis and prioritization of current issues. The relative priorities of problem concerns were judged on the basis of their overall impact on the system and the immediacy of this potential impact. Two classes of concern are distinguished: 1. Potential problems that appear to require new programmatic action, in addition to effort already committed, to minimize the possible future impact of these concerns. 2. Latent concerns that may increase or decrease in priority or entirely change in nature as they develop. While the trend of these concerns should be monitored, new program action does not appear necessary at this time

Energy material transport, now through 2000, system characteristics and potential problems. Task 3. Final report - petroleum transportation

This report contains a summary characterization of the petroleum transportation system and an assessment of some potential problems that may impact petroleum transportation in the United States during the balance of the century. A primary purpose of this task is to provide information and perspective that contribute to the evaluation of research and development needs and priorities in future programs. The system characterization in Section 3 includes a review of petroleum product movements, modal operations and comparisons, and transportation regulations and safety. This system overview summarizes domestic production and consumption scenarios to the year 2000. A median scenario based on published projections shows that the US will probably rely on foreign oil to supply between 40 and 50 percent of domestic petroleum needs throughout the balance of the century. Potential problems in petroleum transportation were identified by the analysis and prioritization of current issues. The relative priorities of problem concerns were judged on the basis of their overall impact on the system and the immediacy of this potential impact. Two classes of concern are distinguished: 1. Potential problems that appear to require new programmatic action, in addition to effort already committed, to minimize the possible future impact of these concerns. 2. Latent concerns that may increase or decrease in priority or entirely change in nature as they develop. While the trend of these concerns should be monitored, new program action does not appear necessary at this time

High-temperature superconducting transformer evaluation

The advancing development of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) materials is encouraging the evaluation of many practical applications. This paper summarizes a study that examined the future potential of HTS power transformers in the 30-MVA to 1000-MVA capacity range. Transformer performance was characterized on the basis of potentially achievable HTS materials capabilities and dominant transformer design parameters. Life-cycle costs were estimated and compared with those of conventional transformers to evaluate the economic viability and market potential of HTS designs. HTS transformers are projected to have both capital and energy cost advantages attributable to their ability to be intrinsically smaller and lighter than conventional transformers of comparable capacity

Opportunities to increase the productivity of spent fuel shipping casks in the United States

Trends indicate that future transportation requirements for spent fuel will be different from those anticipated when the current generation of casks and vehicles was designed. Increased storage capacity at most reactors will increase the average post irradiation age of the spent fuel to be transported. A scenario is presented which shows the 18 casks currently available should be sufficient until approximately 1983. Beyond this time, it appears that an adequate transportation system can be maintained by acquiring, as needed, casks of current designs and new casks currently under development. Spent fuel transportation requirements in the post-1990 period can be met by a new generation of casks specifically designed to transport long-cooled fuel. In terms of the number of casks needed, productivity may be increased by 19% if rail cask turnaround time is reduced to 4 days from the current range of 6.5 to 8.5 days. Productivity defined as payloads per cask year could be increased 62% if the turnaround time for legal weight truck casks were reduced from 12 hours to 4 hours. On a similar basis, overweight truck casks show a 28% increase in productivity