Investigative Study Of Radiotoxicity Of Spent Nuclear Fuel Assembly Of Some Commercial Nuclear Power Plants Case Study: European Pressurized Water Reactor And Hualong One Pressurized Water Re

ABSTRACT

The European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) and Hualong One Pressurized Water

Reactor (HPR) are two of the reactors under consideration by the Ghana Nuclear Power

Programme. Radiotoxicity analysis of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) assembly was carried out

with these commercial Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) nuclear power technology as

case study. Burnup depletion calculation for the Uranium Oxide (UOX) fuel of these

reactor technologies was simulated. Monte Carlo Neutron Particle Extended (MCNPX), a

code used in nuclear fuel management analysis, was chosen in this study for the Burnup

depletion calculation, being a well validated code and due to its versatile nuclei reactions

cross section library.

Determination of radiotoxicity for EPR and HPR SNF is the main objective of this study.

The radiotoxicity was achieved taking into consideration the radioactive decay rate of the

radionuclides and the Dose Factor of each radionuclide present in the SNF using the

International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) compendium of Dose

Factors due to ingestion. The radiotoxicity for the two reactor’s SNF were compared. The

initial radiotoxicity for HPR SNF was higher in the duration below one hundred years but

at about a hundred years and above, the radiotoxicity was higher for EPR SNF. The

radiotoxicity was tremendously reduced for the reprocessed spent UOX fuel (with the Pu

and U extracted) to be used as mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. The main finding is that Pu

isotopes are the major contributors to the radiotoxicity of the SNF for the two reactors

systems due to their very high radioactivity, long half-lifes and high dose factors as

compared to other actinides and fission products present in the SNF.

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