A Study on Radiological Evaluation According to Exposure Conditions in Mobile Radiochemistry Analysis Facilities Using Worker’s Dose Evaluation Code

• Published in: Science and technology of nuclear installations Vol. 2025; no. 1
• Main Authors: Lee, Minho, Lee, Sangheon, Ha, Woobeom, Yu, Hyunjin, Song, Jongsoon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2025; Wiley
• Subjects: Automation; Data analysis; Decommissioning; Energy research; Evaluation; Human error; Laboratories; Nuclear power plants; Radiation; Radioactive waste disposal; Radioactive wastes; Radioactivity; Radiochemical analysis; Registration; Workers; Working hours; Workloads
• ISSN: 1687-6075; 1687-6083
• DOI: 10.1155/stni/1408025

The decommissioning of a nuclear power plant generates a large amount of radioactive waste that requires significant disposal costs. Consequently, it is an important factor in assessing decommissioning costs. The most effective approach to minimizing decommissioning waste is rapid classification based on radioactivity levels. However, some nuclear sites do not have their own radiochemical analysis laboratory. Even in Korea, the analysis process does not’ occur at the decommissioning site but rather at an external analysis institution to ascertain concentrations. This analysis procedure is time‐consuming and may result in cross‐contamination among radioactive wastes. Therefore, rapid analysis of decommissioning waste can reduce the amount of radioactive waste disposal and ultimately improve the economics. To address these issues, research is ongoing to develop a mobile radiochemistry laboratory. This study evaluated the radiological effects on workers as a basis for the application of mobile facilities on‐site. Worker exposure doses were assessed using computational code, considering the analysis workload in single and continuous processes under both normal and abnormal operations. The preliminary evaluation results from this prestudy confirm regulatory dose limits, and it is anticipated that future studies can be augmented with field data.