Container combination for the transportation and storage of radioactive waste especially nuclear reactor fuel elements

摘要

For the transportation and storage of irradiated nuclear fuel elements there are needed combinations of inner and outer containers wherein the inner container should be usable for the storage of the fuel elements in correspondingly conceived fuel element storehouses without reloading, unnecessary waste of space and burden of weight on the storage support. This is obtained by a container combination in which (a) the bottom and the jacket of the outer container are so dimensioned in their thickness that they completely or preponderantly take care of the shielding function against gamma and neutron radiation, (b) the inner container is axially fixed in the outer container in such manner that the cover of the inner container and the cover of the outer container do not touch, (c) the radial position of the inner container in the outer container is fixed by a narrowing of the cross section of the inner space of the outer container proceeding downwardly to the bottom and (d) the outer wall of the inner container is made tight against the inner wall of the outer container through sealing elements.