As regulations on carbon emissions increase, the interest in renewable energy is also increasing. However, the efficiency of renewable energy generation is highly low and has limitations in replacing existing energy consumption. In terms of this view, nuclear power generation is highlighted because it has the advantage of not emitting carbon. And accordingly, the amount of spent nuclear fuel is going to increase naturally in the future. Therefore, it will be important to obtain the reliability of containers for transporting safely and storing spent nuclear fuel. In this study, a method for verifying the integrity and airtightness of a metal cask for the safe transportation and storage of spent nuclear fuel was studied. Non-destructive testing, thermal stability, leakage stability, and neutron shielding were demonstrated, and as a result, suitable quality for loading spent nuclear fuel could be obtained. Furthermore, it is meaningful in that it has secured manufacturing technology that can be directly applied to industrial field by verifying actual products.

Compartment fire tests were performed using kerosene and Jet A-1 as fire sources to evaluate the relationship between flame temperature and opening size. The tests were performed for a fire caused by the release of kerosene owing to vehicle impact, and for a fire caused by the release of Jet-A-1 owing to airplane collision. The compartment fire tests were performed using a 1/3-scale model of a metal storage cask when the flame temperature was deemed to be the highest. We found the combustion time of Jet-A-1 to be shorter than that of kerosene, and consequently, the flame temperature of Jet-A-1 was measured to be higher than that of kerosene. When the opening was installed on the compartment roof, even though the area of the opening was small, the ventilation factor was large, resulting in a high flame temperature and long combustion. Therefore, the position of the opening is a crucial factor that affects the flame temperature. When the metal storage cask was stored in the compartment, the flame temperature decreased proportionally with the energy that the metal storage cask received from the flame.