Dose Rate Assessment Around the PCFV Release Line During Severe Accident Conditions in Nuclear Power Plant Krsko

Abstract

Passive containment filtered vent (PCFV) was installed in Nuclear Power Plant Krsko (NEK) in 2013 as part of the safety upgrade program. It is intended for severe accident consequences prevention and mitigation by ensuring the containment integrity. When the pressure in the containment reaches limiting value, containment atmosphere is released into the environment through the PCFV system exhaust line. But, before release in the environment, the containment atmosphere passes through five aerosol filters in the containment and one iodine filter in the auxiliary building (AB) to reduce isotopic activity. In this paper, dose rates around the exhaust line of the PCFV system resulting from radioactivity release in case of a severe accident were determined in a four-step methodology. The assumed severe accident scenario is a beyond design basis accident station blackout (SBO) in NEK, which was simulated using the MELCOR code. Its results were input for the radionuclide transport and removal and dose estimation (RADTRAD) radiological calculations to obtain the activities released in the containment. These activities were then transformed into the gamma source intensity and spectrum using the ORIGEN-S libraries. This form of the source term is required for Monte Carlo calculations which were performed using the MCNP6.2. Two Monte Carlo calculations were performed. One for which the radiation source was modeled to emanate from the containment atmosphere and the other from the PCFV duct fluid. The main reason for the calculation was to assess limiting dose rates around PCFV duct (radiation monitor location) during actuation after severe accident. That is why the model is simple and conservative. The other task was to demonstrate that this location is not suitable for longer personnel presence in case of equipment failure during the PCFV actuation. Due to conservative assumptions, predicted dose rates are the highest expected at that location for any severe accident scenario.