Environmental monitoring program around Rokkasho nuclear fuel cycle facilities

Abstract

Three commercial nuclear fuel cycle facilities, a reprocessing plant, an uranium enrichment plant and a low level radioactive waste disposal center, have been constructed or are in partial operation at Rokkasho-mura in Aomori prefecture, about 700 km north of Tokyo. A monitoring program has been settled on the modulation between Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL) and Aomori Prefectural Govemment. The basic goal of environmental monitoring is to make sure that the dose equivalent received by the public, living around the facilities, is much lower than the annual dose equivalent limit. The target is as follows: (1) to estimate the dose equivalent received by the public, (2) to understand the accumulation of radioactive materials in the environment and (3) to estimate the influence on the environment due to unexpected release from the nuclear facilities and to make judgement for the enforcement of routine monitoring or not. This paper describes the contents of the monitoring program such as the object of nuclides, measuring/sampling point, kinds of samples etc.