When the Swiss government asked for proof that a Holtec International storage container for spent nuclear fuel could survive a plane crash, the company obliged – by shooting a missile at it.
During a recent test at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, a scaled model of the HI-STAR 180 transport cask withstood a direct hit from a missile set up specifically to inflict maximum stress on its containment boundary. Moving more than 600 miles per hour, the missile satisfied Swiss regulators' requirements to simulate an aircraft impact but failed to breach the container.
The successful test is good news for the company's Pittsburgh manufacturing plant, which will build 14 of the casks for the Swiss market once granted formal approval. The HI-STAR 180 was licensed in the U.S. in 2009 to transport high-burn-up pressurized water reactor fuel and MOX. According to Holtec, its design also meets the International Atomic Energy Agency's requirements for a type B(U)F cask.