Citation:
I. Alsaqer, “Radiation Dose Rate Evaluation in Kingdom of Bahrain Due to a Hypothetical Accident in a Nuclear Power Plant in the Region”, M.S. Thesis, Nuclear Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (2022).
Abstract:
The construction of new nuclear power plants in the Middle East region calls for an estimate of the radiation dose to the general members of public in the region due to an accidental radiological release, even though it is a highly unlikely scenario. The main objective of this thesis research is to perform radiation dose assessments for the Kingdom of Bahrain and the countries of the Arabian Gulf region for the case of a large radioactive material release due to a hypothetical accident in a regional nuclear power plant. This objective was accomplished by computing the radioactive source term by performing nuclear reactor core physics and fuel burnup simulations using Monte Carlo radiation transport code, MCNP. MCNP code was used to prepare the model of a fuel assembly used in one of the nuclear reactor cores in the Middle East region. The MCNP model was used to perform fuel burnup simulations for estimating the concentration of radionuclides in the burned nuclear fuel. Subsequently, the estimation of location-dependent radiation dose rates was carried out by using a material dispersion code, HOTSPOT. For fuel assembly and the corresponding burnup simulations, a model of the advanced pressurized water reactor (APWR) was used. A mixture of radioactive isotopes from the estimated source term was used to perform material dispersion simulation based on the Gaussian dispersion model. The atmospheric dispersion simulation of radioactive materials and the corresponding radiation dose rate estimates gave useful insights on the potential areas that will be affected, which should help in emergency planning and preparedness. The most probable dose rate was recorded at a wind speed of 6.8 m/s and ranged between 0.0085 mSv for atmospheric stability A and 4.3 mSv for atmospheric stability D, while the highest radiation dose recorded was 41 mSv in the Kingdom of Bahrain for the worst-case scenario studied, which involved the hypothetical accidental release of 10% of the core inventory and atmospheric conditions at a wind speed of 3 m/s and atmospheric stability F.