Optimization of Personnel Work Paths During Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities

Abstract

During the decommissioning process of nuclear facilities, workers are exposed to radiation and face the risk of exceeding safe dose limits. Ensuring the safety of personnel requires not only enhancing radiation protection measures but also optimizing work paths to minimize exposure time and avoid high-radiation areas. This paper proposes a nested optimization algorithm that combines an ant colony optimization (ACO) with an improved A* algorithm for the decommissioning of a nonradiation source. The algorithm aims to minimize the total radiation dose and transforms the original path optimization problem into an equivalent traveling salesperson problem. The improved A* algorithm is employed in the inner layer to calculate the path with the lowest radiation dose for any given sales order. The ACO operates in the outer layer to determine a set of optimal working paths that traverse all target points. The provided solution example demonstrates that the proposed path optimization algorithm effectively integrates the radiation field and obstacles. It successfully identifies a sequence for dismantling with the lowest dose and corresponding optimal work path while ensuring the completion of the dismantling task. These findings are expected to offer valuable insights for optimizing personnel work paths during the subsequent decommissioning process of nuclear facilities.

Keywords:

• Nuclear decommissioning
• grid map
• improved A* algorithm
• ant colony optimization
• visualization

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China [under grant 52075156], the National Science Foundation of China [under grant 52175224], the National Science Foundation of China [under grant 52005172], and the Fundamental Research Program of China [under grant JCKY2020110C105].