Characterization of Radiation Field in the Steam Generator Water Chambers and Effective Doses to the Workers
Lee, Choon-Sik;Lee, Jai-Ki;
ABSTRACT
Characteristics of radiation field in the steam generator(S/G) water chamber of a PWR were investigated and the anticipated effective dose rates to the worker in the S/G chamber were evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation. The results of crud analysis in the S/G of the Kori nuclear power plant unit 1 were adopted for the source term. The MCNP4A code was used with the MIRD type anthropomorphic sex-specific mathematical phantoms for the calculation of effective doses. The radiation field intensity is dominated by downward rays, from the U-tube region, having approximate cosine distribution with respect to the polar angle. The effective dose rates to adults of nominal body size and of small body size(The phantom for a 15 year-old person was applied for this purpose) appeared to be 36.22 and 37.06 $mSvh^{-1}$) respectively, which implies that the body size effect is negligible. Meanwhile, the equivalent dose rates at three representative positions corresponding to head, chest and lower abdomen of the phantom, calculated using the estimated exposure rates, the energy spectrum and the conversion coefficients given in ICRU47, were 118, 71 and 57 $mSvh^{-1}$, respectively. This implies that the deep dose equivalent or the effective dose obtained from the personal dosimeter reading would be the over-estimate the effective dose by about two times. This justifies, with possible under- or over- response of the dosimeters to radiation of slant incidence, necessity of very careful planning and interpretation for the dosimetry of workers exposed to a non-regular radiation field of high intensity.
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