Assessment for radiological impact of irradiated nuclear fuel package sunk in marine environment

Abstract

To gain the public acceptance for the transport of irradiated nuclear fuel, environmental impact assessments have been made by assuming that a transport package may be sunk into the sea. General circulation models for the Japan Sea and for the world ocean were employed to simulate radionuclide concentration in the ocean near shore and in deep sea areas respectively. Radionuclide concentrations were simulated for the hypothetical release from a submerged transport package of fresh mixed oxide fuel in the Japan Sea and the global ocean by general circulation models. Simulated concentrations were quite small compared to the background concentration by the fallout. The effective doses of radiation exposure to the public for both cases were much less than the effective dose limit (1 mSv year^–1) by the ICRP recommendation.

Keywords:

• IMPACT ASSESSMENT
• SEA TRANSPORT
• SUBMERGENCE ACCIDENT
• OCEAN GENERAL CIRCULATION MODEL
• DOSE ASSESSMENT