• Title/Summary/Keyword: Radioactive metal waste

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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.

Behavior of Radioactive Metal Surrogates Under Various Waste Combustion Conditions

  • Yang, Hee-Chul;Lee, Jae-Hee;Kim, Jung-Guk;Yoo, Jae-Hyung;Kim, Joo-Hyung
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.34 no.1
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    • pp.80-89
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    • 2002
  • A laboratory investigation of the behavior of radioactive metals under the various waste combustion atmospheres was conducted to predict the parameters that influence their partitioning behavior during waste incineration. Neodymium, samarium, cerium, gadolinium, cesium and cobalt were used as non-radioactive surrogate metals that are representative of uranium, plutonium, americium, curium, radioactive cesium, and radioactive cobalt, respectively. Except for cesium, all of the investigated surrogate metal compounds converted into each of their stable oxides at medium temperatures from 400 to 90$0^{\circ}C$, under oxygen- deficient and oxygen-sufficient atmospheres (0.001-atm and 0.21-atm $O_2$). At high temperatures above 1,40$0^{\circ}C$, cerium, neodymium and samarium in the form of their oxides started to vaporize but the vaporization rates were very slow up to 150$0^{\circ}C$ . Inorganic chlorine (NaCl) as well as organic chlorine (PVC) did not impact the volatility of investigated Nd$_2$O$_3$, CoO and Cs$_2$O. The results of laboratory investigations suggested that the combustion chamber operating parameters affecting the entrainment of particulate and filtration equipment operating parameters affecting particle collection efficiency be the governing parameters of alpha radionuclides partitioning during waste incineration.

Preliminary Radiation Exposure Dose Evaluation for Workers of the Landfill Disposal Facility Considering the Radiological Characteristics of Very Low Level Concrete and Metal Decommissioning Wastes (극저준위 콘크리트, 금속 해체방폐물의 방사선적 특성을 고려한 매립형 처분시설 방사선작업자 예비 피폭선량 평가)

  • Ho-Seog Dho;Ye-Seul Cho;Hyun-Goo Kang;Jae-Chul Ha
    • Journal of Radiation Industry
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    • v.17 no.4
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    • pp.509-518
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    • 2023
  • The Kori Unit 1 nuclear power plant, which is planned to be dismantled after permanent shutdown, is expected to generate a large amount of various types of radioactive waste during the dismantling process. For the disposal of Very-low-level waste, which is expected to account for the largest amount of generation, the Korea Radioactive waste Agency (KORAD) is in the process of detailed design to build a 3-phase landfill disposal facility in Gyeongju. In addition, a large container is being developed to efficiently dispose of metal and concrete waste, which are mainly generated as Very low-level waste of decommissioning. In this study, based on the design characteristics of the 3-phase landfill disposal facility and the large container under development, radiation exposure dose evaluation was performed considering the normal and accident scenarios of radiation workers during operation. The direct exposure dose evaluation of workers during normal operation was performed using the MCNP computer program, and the internal and external exposure dose evaluation due to damage to the decommissioning waste package during a drop accident was performed based on the evaluation method of ICRP. For the assumed scenario, the exposure dose of worker was calculated to determine whether the exposure dose standards in the domestic nuclear safety act were satisfied. As a result of the evaluation, it was confirmed that the result was quite low, and the result that satisfied the standard limit was confirmed, and the radiational disposal suitability for the 3-phase landfill disposal facility of the large container for dismantled radioactive waste, which is currently under development, was confirmed.

The Assessment and Reduction Plan of Radiation Exposure During Decommissioning of the Steam Generator in Kori Unit 1 (고리1호기 증기발생기 제염해체 시 작업자 피폭선량 평가 및 저감화 방안)

  • Son, Young Jik;Park, Sang June;Byon, Jihyang;Ahn, Seokyoung
    • Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.377-387
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    • 2018
  • Korea's first commercial nuclear power plant, Kori Unit 1, was permanently shut down on June 18, 2017, after 40 years of successful operation. Kori Unit 1 plans to construct a waste treatment facility in the turbine building prior to commencement of dismantling in earnest. Various radioactive wastes are decontaminated, disassembled, cut and melted in the waste treatment facility and sent to the radioactive waste repository. The proportion of metal radioactive waste in dismantled waste is about 70%, of which large metal radioactive waste is mainly generated in the primary circuit and has high radioactivity, so radiation exposure must be managed during disassembly. In this study, the steam generators are selected as large metal radioactive waste, the exposure doses of the dismantling workers are calculated using RESRAD-RECYCLE code and the methods for reducing the exposure doses are suggested.

The radiation monitoring system against radioactive material in SCRAP (방사능오염 스크랩(scrap) 감지장치 개발)

  • 이진우;김기홍
    • 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 1997.10a
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    • pp.8-10
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    • 1997
  • In recent years, the metal industry has become increasingly aware of an unwanted component in metal scrap-radioactive material. Worldwide, there have 38 instances where radioactive sources were unintentionally smelted in the course of recycling metal scrap. In some cases contaminated metal consumer products were distributed internationally. U.S. mill that have smelted a radioactive source face costs resulting from decontamination, waste disposal, and lost profits that range from 7 to 23 million U.S. dollars for each case. Despite radiation monitoring system does not provide 100% protection, POSCO has developed the system for the first time in the steel industry of KOREA.

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