An External Dose Assessment of Worker during RadWaste Treatment Facility Decommissioning

Abstract

Background: Kori unit #1 is permanently shut down after a 40-year lifetime. The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission recommends establishing initial decommissioning plans for all nuclear and radwaste treatment facilities. Therefore, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) must establish an initial and final decommissioning plan for radwaste-treatment facilities. Radiation safety assessment, which constitutes one chapter of the decommissioning plan, is important for establishing a decommissioning schedule, a strategy, and cost. It is also a critical issue for the government and public to understand. Materials and Methods: This study provides a method for assessing external radiation dose to workers during decommissioning. An external dose is calculated following each exposure scenario, decommissioning strategy, and working schedule. In this study, exposure dose is evaluated using the deterministic method. Physical characterization of the facility is obtained by both direct measurement and analysis of the drawings, and radiological characterization is analyzed using the annual report of KAERI, which measures the ambient dose every month. Results and Discussion: External doses are calculated at each stage of a decommissioning strategy and found to increase with each successive stage. The maximum external dose was evaluated to be 397.06 man-mSv when working in liquid-waste storage. To satisfy the regulations, working period and manpower must be managed. In this study, average and cumulative exposure doses were calculated for three cases, and the average exposure dose was found to be about 17 mSv/yr in all the cases. Conclusion: For the three cases presented, the average exposure dose is well below the annual maximum effective dose restriction imposed by the international and domestic regulations. Working period and manpower greatly affect the cost and entire decommissioning plan; hence, the chosen option must take account of these factors with due consideration of worker safety.