PYROPROCESS WASTE DISPOSAL SYSTEM DESIGN AND DOSE CALCULATION

Abstract

PWR spent fuels produced in the Republic of Korea are expected to be recycled by pyroprocess in the long term future. Even though pyroprocess waste amounts can be smaller than that of PWR spent fuel assembly in case of direct disposal, this process essentially will produce various and unique radioactive wastes. The goals of this article are to characterize these wastes, calculate the amount of wastes, design disposal systems for each waste and evaluate the radiation safety of each system by dose assessment. The absorbed dose results of the metal and ceramic waste for the engineering barrier system (EBS) showed 2.21 x 10(-2) Gy/h and 1.15 x 10(-2) Gy/h, which are lower than the recommended value of 1 Gy/h. These results confirmed that the newly proposed disposal systems have a safety margin for the radiation produced from each waste.