RADIATION SAFETY ASSESSMENT FOR KN-12 SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL TRANSPORT CASK USING MONTE CARLO SIMULATION

The KN-12 spent nuclear fuel (SNF) transport cask is designed for transportation of up to 12 assemblies and is in standby status for being licensed in accordance with Korea Atomic Energy Act. To evaluate radiation shielding and criticality safety of the KN-12 cask, each case of study was carried out using MCNP4B Code. MCNP code is verified by performing benchmark calculation for the KSC-4 SNF cask designed in 1989. As a result of radiation safety evaluation for the KN-12 cask, calculated dose rates always satisfied the standards at the cask surface, at 2m from the surface in normal transport condition, and at 1 m from the surface in hypothetical accident condition. Maximum dose rate was always arisen on the side of the cask. For normal transport condition, photons primarily contribute to dose rate between two kinds of released sources, neutrons and photons, from spent nuclear fuel but for hypothetical accident condition, contrary case was resulted. The level of calculated dose rate was 27.8% of the limit at the cask surface, 89.3% at 2 m from the cask surface, and 25.1% at 1 m from the cask surface. For criticality analysis, keff resulting from the criticality analysis considering the condition of optimum partial flooding with fresh water is 0.89708(0.00065. The results confirm the standards recommended by all regulations on radiation safety.