ESTIMATION OF ALUMINUM AND ARGON ACTIVATION SOURCES IN THE HANARO COOLANT

Abstract

The activation products of aluminum and argon are key radionuclides for operational and environmental radiological safety during the normal operation of open-tank-in-pool type research reactors using aluminum-clad fuels. Their activities measured in the primary coolant and pool surface water of HANARO have been consistent. We estimated their sources from the measured activities and then compared these values with their production rates obtained by a core calculation. For each aluminum activation product, an equivalent aluminum thickness (EAT) in which its production rate is identical to its release rate into the coolant is determined. For the argon activation calculation, the saturated argon concentration in the water at the temperature of the pool surface is assumed. The EATs are 5680, 266 and 1.2 nm, respectively, for Na-24, Mg-27 and Al-28, which are much larger than the flight lengths of the respective recoil nuclides. These values coincide with the water solubility levels and with the half-lives. The EAT for Na-24 is similar to the average oxide layer thickness (OLT) of fuel cladding as well; hence, the majority of them in the oxide layer may be released to the coolant. However, while the average OLT clearly increases with the fuel burn-up during an operation cycle, its effect on the pool-top radiation is not distinguishable. The source of Ar-41 is in good agreement with the calculated reaction rate of Ar-40 dissolved in the coolant.