Radioactive Source Specification of Bushehr’s VVER-1000 Spent Fuels

Abstract

Due to high radioactivity and significant content of medium- and long-lived radionuclides, different operations with spent nuclear fuels (e.g., handling, transportation, and storage) shall be accompanied by suitable radiation protections. On the other hand, determination of radioactive source specification is the initial step for any radiation protection design. In this study, radioactive source specification of the spent fuels of Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is a VVER-1000 type pressurized water reactor, was determined. For the depletion and decay calculations, ORIGEN code was utilized. The results are presented for burnups of 30 to 49 GWd/MTHM and different cooling times up to 100 years. According to these results, total activity of a spent fuel assembly with initial enrichment of 3.92%, burnup of 49 GWd/MTHM, and cooling time of 3 years is 1.92 × 1016 Bq. The results can be utilized specifically in transportation/storage cask design for spent fuel management of Bushehr nuclear power plant.