DOE Glowing Following Successful Atlas Test
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
DOE photo.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy on June 5 will officially unveil its nuclear waste-hauling Atlas railcar at BNSF’s 31st Street Yard, Denver, Colo. during the DOE’s 2024 National Transportation Stakeholders Forum Annual Meeting.
Atlas is a 12-axle railcar designed specifically to transport large containers of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. It “meets the highest safety and security standards set by the Association of American Railroads (AAR),” DOE said. A final test simulated a full-scale shipment of spent nuclear fuel, carrying steel test weights instead of radioactive cargo. The railcar was loaded to its maximum weight with a 480,000-pound (240-ton) test load designed to simulate the heaviest transport container certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (See video, below.)
The test train departed Pueblo, Colo. on Sept. 5, 2023 and completed a four-day round-trip journey to Scoville, Idaho, “collecting valuable data along the way,” DOE noted. The prototype consist included one Atlas, a Rail Escort Vehicle (REV), two buffer railcars, and two Union Pacific locomotives. The entire trip logged more than 1,680 miles. The four fabricated railcars (Atlas, two buffers and REV) are expected to be ready for operational use as soon as the final testing data can be analyzed and documented, and conditional approval is granted by the AAR Equipment Engineering Committee.
The overall cost of the 10-year Atlas railcar project was approximately $33 million to develop and test the four specially designed and fabricated railcars. The REV was developed in partnership with the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program to replace its aging fleet of escort vehicles. The collaboration “helped reduce the overall cost of the Atlas project significantly,” DOE said.
DOE plans to use Atlas and other railcars to support emergency responder training and informational roadshows prior to commencing shipments of spent nuclear fuel to a federal consolidated interim storage facility. The Department is currently working to site one or more federal consolidated interim storage facilities for storing spent nuclear fuel using a consent-based siting process.
DOE describes consent-based siting as “an approach to siting facilities that focuses on the needs and concerns of people and communities. Communities participate in the siting process by working carefully through a series of phases and steps with the Department (as the implementing organization). Each step and phase helps a community determine whether and how hosting a facility to manage spent nuclear fuel is aligned to the community’s goals. By its nature, a consent-based siting process must be flexible, adaptive, and responsive to community concerns. Thus, the phases and steps are intended to serve as a guide, not a prescriptive set of instructions. Working through the consent-based siting process collaboratively builds a mutual trust relationship between DOE and a potential host community. Potential outcomes from the consent-based siting process could include either a negotiated consent agreement or a determination that after exploring the option in good faith, the community is not, in fact, interested in serving as a host. Both are successful outcomes.”
“To date, the U.S. has generated around 92,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power production,” DOE noted. “DOE estimates 140,000 metric tons could be generated by the time operating nuclear reactors reach the end of their lifetimes. To prepare for future transport of commercial spent nuclear fuel, DOE developed specialty railcars, including Atlas.”
“This milestone underscores the Department’s dedication to advancing the safe and secure transportation of radioactive materials, including spent nuclear fuel,” said Dr. Patrick R. Schwab, DOE’s Atlas railcar project manager. “Through the successful completion of the test and the Atlas railcar project, we have delivered a capability for the Department to effectively transport spent nuclear fuel to future DOE storage and disposal facilities, filling a key role for successful operation of a nuclear waste management system.”
