International nuclear power corporation AREVA said that a subsidiary, AREVA Federal Services, had won an $8.6 million U.S. Department of Energy contract for design and fabrication of rail cars for nuclear material transportation.
The rail cars are to be used for large-scale transport of used nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive material, AREVA announced Wednesday.
The contract includes conceptual design and dynamic modeling of HLRM (high-level radioactive material) transport casks cars as well as buffer cars, which would be used to provide space between the cask rail cars and the locomotive.
AREVA said it would first seek certification for their designs by the Association of American Railroads. After that, it would begin fabrication of the prototype cask and buffer rail cars.
The company, said AREVA Federal Services President Tom Franch, has 50 years of experience in international transportation of nuclear material. “We have the resources and expertise to support the DOE's efforts to plan and to develop options for execution of this program,” he said.
The subsidiary will be the lead service working with KASGRO Rail and Transportation Technology Center, Inc.
KASGRO is currently the only fabricator of certified cask cars for HLRM transport. Transportation Technology Center, Inc., provides testing services for rail cars.
The team also includes Stroller Newport News Nuclear and MHF Services, which will have input into design concepts.
Driving the need for new rail car options is the DOE’s Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste, which calls or the operation of a national consolidated interim storage facility by 2021 and the creation of a larger national consolidated interim storage facility expected to be operational by 2025, the company said.