Management of Commercially Generated Radioactive Waste - U.S. ...

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The shielded waste container would be loaded into a ground transportation shipping cask.
This cask would provide additional radiation shielding, as well as thermal and impact protec-
tion for the waste container to comply with NRC/DOT shipping regulations. It would be
transported to the launch site on a special rail car and be stored in a nuclear payload pre-
paration facility with provision for additional shielding and thermal control. The waste
containers would be monitored and inspected during storage.
For launch, the shielded waste form would be integrated with:
* A reentry vehicle, which would protect and structurally support the waste in the Space
Shuttle orbiter cargo bay
* A solar orbit insertion stage (SOIS), which would place the waste payload into its final
solar orbit
* An orbit transfer vehicle (OTV), which would take the waste from low Earth orbit into a
solar orbit transfer trajectory.
Prelaunch checkout would include verification of the payload and the payload-to-orbiter
interface systems. Typically, propellant would be loaded in the preparation facility to
minimize the hazard of propellant loading while the payload was in the Shuttle cargo bay on
the launch pad.
From the preparation facility, a special-purpose transporter would take the payload to
the launch pad, where special equipment would position and install it in the Shuttle cargo
bay.
Orbital Operations. The orbital operations for this concept would include launching into
earth orbit, transfer from there to a solar orbit, and finally rounding out the solar orbit.
(see Figure 6.1.24). The Uprated Space Shuttle, designed to carry a 45,000 kg (99,000 lb)
payload, would be launched into a low Earth orbit (300 km). The launch would avoid early
land overflight of populated land masses. The liquid rocket booster engines and the external
tank would be jettisoned before the orbit is reached.
During suborbital portions of the flight, the Orbiter would be able to command shutdown
of all engines and either return to the launch site or ditch in the ocean. From 5 to 6
minutes after launch, the Orbiter could abort by going once around the Earth and then re-
turning to land. After 6 minutes, the Orbiter has the on-board thrust capability to abort
directly to a sustained earth orbit. If a Shuttle malfunction exceeded the abort capability,
the nuclear payload with the reentry vehicle would automatically eject and make its own
reentry. It would be designed to survive a land or water impact.
Once in orbit, the loaded reentry vehicle would be automatically latched to the SOIS and,
with the OTV, would automatically deploy from the orbiter bay. At this time, the waste pay-
load would be remotely transferred from the reentry vehicle to the SOIS payload adapter.