Primary Inventor: Krishna P. Singh
Date: Jun. 22, 2021
Status: Granted
Jurisdiction: US
Assignee: Holtec International
Equipment Type: Transfer Cask
Docket Number: HOL-123
Application Number: 16/434,620
Patent Number: US 11,043,312 B2
Prior Publication Data: US 2020/0027612 A1, Jan. 23, 2020
Related U.S. Application Data: Provisional application No. 62/681,731, filed on Jun. 7, 2018.
Abstract: A separable multi-component cask for spent nuclear fuel transport and storage includes a vertically elongated outer cylinder having a neutron radiation shielding composition and a vertically elongated inner cylinder having a gamma radiation blocking composition. The inner cylinder includes a cavity configured to hold a spent nuclear fuel canister. The inner cylinder is detachably mounted and nested inside a cavity of the outer cylinder and is separable therefrom during spent fuel cask loading operations in a staged manner. An air ventilation annulus formed between the first and second cylinders forms a heat removal passage to remove heat emitted by the radioactive canister when placed inside the second cylinder. A pair of removably coupled mating top flanges on the inner and outer cylinders supports and suspends the inner cylinder in a cantilevered manner, thereby allowing the directly heated inner cylinder to thermally expand to a greater degree than the outer cylinder.
