• Title/Summary/Keyword: Nuclear waste

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Conceptual Design for Repackaging of PWR Spent Nuclear Fuel (경수로 사용후핵연료 재포장 개념(안) 수립)

  • Sang-Hwan Lee;Chang-Min Shin;HyunGoo Kang;Chun-Hyung Cho;HaeRyong Jung
    • Journal of Radiation Industry
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.519-532
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    • 2023
  • Spent nuclear fuel(SNF) is stored in nuclear power plants for a certain period of time and then transported to an interim storage facility. After that, SNF is finally repackaged in a disposal canister at an encapsulation plant for final disposal. Finland and Sweden, leading countries in SNF disposal technology, have already completed designing of spent fuel encapsulation plant. In particular, the encapsulation plant construction in Finland is near completion. When it comes to South Korea, as the amount of SNF production and disposal plan is different from those in Finland and Sweden, it is difficult to apply the concepts of these contries as is. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the spent fuel repackaging concept and to derive each operating and repackaging procedures by considering annual disposal plan of South Korea. The results of this study is expected to be used to establish the concept of optimized encapsulation plant through further research.

Preliminary Evaluation of Radiological Impact for Domestic On-road Transportation of Decommissioning Waste of Kori Unit 1

  • Dho, Ho-Seog;Seo, Myung-Hwan;Kim, Rin-Ah;Kim, Tae-Man;Cho, Chun-Hyung
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.18 no.4
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    • pp.537-548
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    • 2020
  • Currently, radioactive waste for disposal has been restricted to low and intermediate level radioactive waste generated during operation of nuclear power plants, and these radioactive wastes were managed and disposed of the 200 L and 320 L of steel drums. However, it is expected that it will be difficult to manage a large amount of decommissioning waste of the Kori unit 1 with the existing drums and transportation containers. Accordingly, the KORAD is currently developing various and large-sized containers for packaging, transportation, and disposal of decommissioning waste. In this study, the radiation exposure doses of workers and the public were evaluated using RADTRAN computational analysis code in case of the domestic on-road transportation of new package and transportation containers under development. The results were compared with the domestic annual dose limit. In addition, the sensitivity of the expected exposure dose according to the change in the leakage rate of radionuclides in the waste packaging was evaluated. As a result of the evaluation, it was confirmed that the exposure dose under normal and accident condition was less than the domestic annual exposure dose limit. However, in the case of a number of loading and unloading operations, working systems should be prepared to reduce the exposure of workers.

Evaluation of Exposure Dose and Working Hours for Near Surface Disposal Facility

  • Yeseul Cho;Hoseog Dho;Hyungoo Kang;Chunhyung Cho
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.511-521
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    • 2022
  • Decommissioning of nuclear power plants generates a large amount of radioactive waste in a short period. Moreover, Radioactive waste has various forms including a large volumes of metal, concrete, and solid waste. The disposal of decommissioning waste using 200 L drums is inefficient in terms of economics, work efficiency, and radiation safety. Therefore, The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency is developing large containers for the packaging, transportation, and disposal of decommissioning waste. Assessing disposability considering the characteristics of the radioactive waste and facility, convenience of operation, and safety of workers is necessary. In this study, the exposure dose rate of workers during the disposal of new containers was evaluated using Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport code. Six normal and four abnormal scenarios were derived for the assessment of the dose rate in a near surface disposal facility operation. The results showed that the calculated dose rates in all normal scenarios were lower than the direct exposure dose limitation of workers in the safety analysis report. In abnormal scenarios, the work hours with dose rates below 20 mSv·y-1 were calculated. The results of this study will be useful in establishing the optimal radiation work conditions.

Ion Exchange Behavior of $^{137}Cs,\;^{60}Co$ on Diphosil, a new ion exchange resin (Diphosil 이온교환수지에 의한 $^{137}Cs,\;^{60}Co$의 이온교환 거동)

  • Kim, Su-Jeong;Lee, Sang-Jin;Yang, Ho-Yeon;Shin, Sang-Woon
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 2004
  • Diphosil, a new version of the organic-inorganic composite resin developed by ANL has a structure of the chelating diphosphonic acid groups grafted to a silica support. To apply Diphosil for the treatment of liquid radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, the adsorption equilibrium and column experiments were carried out for the main radionuclides, $^{137}Cs\;and\;^{60}Co$, in the liquid radwaste stream. Through the adsorption equilibrium experiments, the removal efficiencies of $^{137}Cs\;and\;^{60}Co$, and the effects of non-radioactive ions on the removal efficiency have been measured in various conditions using radiotracers. The breakthrough curves for the tested tracers were obtained from the laboratory scale column tests using the simulated liquid radioactive waste. In addition, the removal capacity of Diphosil is compared with that of Amberlite IRN 77 resin, generally used in nuclear power plants.

The status of NORMs in natural environment adjacent to the Rooppur nuclear power plant of Bangladesh

  • Haydar, Md Abu;Hasan, Md Mehade;Jahan, Imrose;Fatema, Kanij;Ali, Md Idris;Paul, Debasish;Khandaker, Mayeen Uddin
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.53 no.12
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    • pp.4114-4121
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    • 2021
  • The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP), the first nuclear power plant in Bangladesh with a capacity of 2.4 GWe, is under construction on the bank of the river Padma, at Rooppur in Bangladesh. Measurement of background radioactivity in the natural environment adjacent to RNPP finds great importance for future perspectives. Soil and sediment samples collected from upstream and downstream positions of the Padma River (adjacent to RNPP) were collected and analyzed by HPGe gamma-ray spectrometry for primordial radionuclides. The average activity concentrations (in Bqkg-1) of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K radionuclides in soil samples were found to be 44.99 ± 3.89, 66.28 ± 6.55 and 553 ± 82.17 respectively. Respective values in sediment samples were found to be 44.59 ± 4.58, 67.64 ± 7.93, 782 ± 108. Relevant radiation hazard indices and dosimetric parameters were calculated and compared with the world average data recommended by US-EPA. Analytical results show non-negligible radiation hazards to the surrounding populace. Measured data will be useful to monitor any change of background radioactivity in the surrounding environment of RNPP following its operation for the generation of nuclear energy.