• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.192-204
• /
• 2012

For a severe accident of nuclear power plant, an approach to estimation of the radiological source term using a severe accident code(MELCOR) has been proposed. Although the MELCOR code has a capability to estimate the radiological source term, it has been hardly utilized for the radiological consequence analysis mainly due to a lack of understanding on the relevant function employed in MELCOR and severe accident phenomena. In order to estimate the severe accident source term to be linked with the radiological consequence analysis, this study proposes 4-step procedure: (1) selection of plant condition leading to a severe accident(i.e., accident sequence), (2) analysis of the relevant severe accident code, (3) investigation of the code analysis results and post-processing, and (4) generation of radiological source term information for the consequence analysis. The feasibility study of the present approach to an early containment failure sequence caused by a fast station blackout(SBO) of a reference plant (OPR-1000), showed that while the MELCOR code has an integrated capability for severe accident and source term analysis, it has a large degree of uncertainty in quantifying the radiological source term. Key insights obtained from the present study were: (1) key parameters employed in a typical code for the consequence analysis(i.e., MACCS) could be generated by MELCOR code; (2) the MELOCR code simulation for an assessment of the selected accident sequence has a large degree of uncertainty in determining the accident scenario and severe accident phenomena; and (3) the generation of source term information for the consequence analysis relies on an expert opinion in both areas of severe accident analysis and consequence analysis. Nevertheless, the MELCOR code had a great advantage in estimating the radiological source term such as reflection of the current state of art in the area of severe accident and radiological source term.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.193-204
• /
• 2023

To ensure radiological safety margin in the transport and storage of spent nuclear fuel, it is crucial to perform source term and shielding analyses in advance from the perspective of conservation. When performing source term analysis on UO₂ fuel, which is mostly used in commercial nuclear power plants, uranium and oxygen are basically considered to be the initial materials of the new fuel. However, the presence of impurities in the fuel and structural materials of the fuel assembly may influence the source term and shielding analyses. The impurities could be radioactive materials or the stable materials that are activated by irradiation during reactor power operation. As measuring the impurity concentration levels in the fuel and structural materials can be challenging, publicly available information on impurity concentration levels is used as a reference in this evaluation. To assess the effect of impurities, the results of the source term and shielding analyses were compared depending on whether the assumed impurity concentration is considered. For the shielding analysis, generic cask design data developed by KEPCO-E&C was utilized.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 2001.05a
• /
• pp.412.1-412
• /
• 2001

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.4
• /
• pp.1516-1525
• /
• 2022

Interfacing the output of severe accident analysis with the input of radiological consequence analysis is an important and mandatory procedure at the beginning of Level 3 PSA. Such interfacing between the severe accident analysis code MELCOR and MACCS, one of the most commonly used consequence analysis codes, is relatively tractable since they share the same chemical groups, and the related interfacing software, MelMACCS, has already been developed. However, the linking between MAAP, another frequently used code for severe accident analyses, and MACCS has difficulties because MAAP employs a different chemical grouping method than MACCS historically did. More specifically, MAAP groups by chemical compound, while MACCS groups by chemical element. An appropriate interfacing method between MAAP and MACCS has therefore long been requested by users. This study suggests a way of extracting relevant information from MAAP results and providing proper source term information to MACCS by an appropriate treatment. Various parameters are covered in terms of magnitude and manner of release in this study, and special treatment is made for a bypass scenario. It is expected that the suggested approach will provide an important contribution as a guide to interface MAAP and MACCS when performing radiological consequence analyses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.43 no.6
• /
• pp.583-592
• /
• 2011

The radiological characteristics for waste classification were assessed for neutron-activated decommissioning wastes from a CANDU reactor. The MCNP/ORIGEN2 code system was used for the source term analysis. The neutron flux and activation cross-section library for each structural component generated by MCNP simulation were used in the radionuclide buildup calculation in ORIGEN2. The specific activities of the relevant radionuclides in the activated metal waste were compared with the specified limits of the specific activities listed in the Korean standard and 10 CFR 61. The time-average full-core model of Wolsong Unit 1 was used as the neutron source for activation of in-core and ex-core structural components. The approximated levels of the neutron flux and cross-section, irradiated fuel composition, and a geometry simplification revealing good reliability in a previous study were used in the source term calculation as well. The results revealed the radioactivity, decay heat, hazard index, mass, and solid volume for the activated decommissioning waste to be $1.04{\times}10^{16}$ Bq, $2.09{\times}10^3$ W, $5.31{\times}10^{14}\;m^3$-water, $4.69{\times}10^5$ kg, and $7.38{\times}10^1\;m^3$, respectively. According to both Korean and US standards, the activated waste of the pressure tubes, calandria tubes, reactivity devices, and reactivity device supporters was greater than Class C, which should be disposed of in a deep geological disposal repository, whereas the side structural components were classified as low- and intermediate-level waste, which can be disposed of in a land disposal repository. Finally, this study confirmed that, regardless of the cooling time of the waste, 15% of the decommissioning waste cannot be disposed of in a land disposal repository. It is expected that the source terms and waste classification evaluated through this study can be widely used to establish a decommissioning/disposal strategy and fuel cycle analysis for CANDU reactors.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.176-181
• /
• 2014

The object of this paper is to evaluate the fission product inventories and radiological doses in a non-LOCA event, based on the U.S. NRC's regulatory methodologies recommended by the TID-14844 and the RG 1.195. For choosing a non-LOCA event, one fuel assembly was assumed to be melted by a channel blockage accident. The Hanul nuclear power reactor unit 6 and the CE $16{\times}16$ fuel assembly were selected as the computational models. The burnup cross section library for depletion calculations was produced using the TRITON module in the SCALE6.1 computer code system. Based on the recently licensed values for fuel enrichment and burnup, the source term calculation was performed using the ORIGEN-ARP module. The fission product inventories released into the environment were obtained with the assumptions of the TID-14844 and the RG 1.195. With two kinds of source terms, the radiological doses of public in normal environment reflecting realistic circumstances were evaluated by applying the average condition of meteorology, inhalation rate, and shielding factor. The statistical analysis was first carried out using consecutive three year-meteorological data measured at the Hanul site. The annual-averaged atmospheric dispersion factors were evaluated at the shortest representative distance of 1,000 m, where the residents are actually able to live from the reactor core, according to the methodology recommended by the RG 1.111. The Korean characteristic-inhalation rate and shielding factor of a building were considered for a series of dose calculations.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.43 no.5
• /
• pp.389-395
• /
• 2020

The evaluation of radioactivated components of heavy-ion accelerator facilities affects the safety of radiation management and the exposure dose for workers. and this is an important issue when predicting the disposal cost of waste during maintenance and dismantling of accelerator facilities. In this study, the FLUKA code was used to simulate the proton treatment device nozzle and classify the radio-nuclides and total radioactivity generated by each component over a short period of time. The source term was evaluated using NIST reference beam data, and the neutron flux generated for each component was calculated using the evaluated beam data. Radioactive isotopes caused by generated neutrons were compared and evaluated using nuclide information from the International Radiation Protection Association and the Korea Radioisotope association. Most of the nuclides produced form of beta rays and electron capture, and short-lived nuclides dominated. However, In the case of ⁵⁴Mn, which is a radioactive product of iron, the effect of gamma rays should be considered. In the case of tritium generated from a material with a low atomic number, it is considered that handling care should be taken due to its long half-life.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.157-163
• /
• 2004

Atmospheric dispersion modelling has been widely used to predict the fate and transport of radioactive or toxic materials released from nuclear facilities which is an unlikely accidental event. To improve the forecasting performance of the dispersion model, it is required that source rate and dispersion characteristics must be defined appropriately. Generally, source term of the radioactive materials is much uncertain at the early phase of an accidental event. In this study, we computed the source rate with the experimental field data monitored at the Yeoung-Kwang nuclear site and obtained the optimal source rate to minimize the errors between the measured concentrations and the computed ones by the Gaussian plume model. Computed source term showed a good result within 24% of the artificially released source rate.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.6
• /
• pp.1994-1998
• /
• 2023

This study quantitatively evaluated the source term of a linear accelerator according to target thickness for a 6-20 MeV electron beam using MCNP6. The elements of the target were tungsten and copper, and a composite target and single target were simulated by setting different thickness parameters depending on energy. The accumulation of energy generated through interaction with the collided target was evaluated at 0.1-mm intervals, and F6 tally was used. The results indicated that less than 3% reference error was maintained according to the MCNP recommendations. At 6, 8, 10, 15, 18, and 20 MeV, the energy accumulation peaks identified for each target were 0.3 mm in tungsten, 1.3 mm in copper, 1.5 mm in copper, 0.5 mm in tungsten, 0.5 mm in tungsten, and 0.5 mm in tungsten. For 8 and 10 MeV in a single target consisting only of copper, the movement of electrons was confirmed at the end of the target, and the proportion of escaped electrons was 0.00011% and 0.00181%, respectively.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.326-332
• /
• 2012

Recently, there are difficulties in operating brachtherapy machine in the radiotherapy department because of increasing the source price with decreasing nuclear reactor in the world. The development and technical features of the Ir-192 HDR sources (4.5 mm, 1.1 mm in diameter) in Korea were described in this report. We expect that this report will be helpful for hospitals to make the long-term plan for operating and managing HDR brachytherapy machine.