Parameters influencing the activation of dismantling nuclear facility structures

• Published in: Annals of nuclear energy 2019-12, Vol.134, p.158-169
• Main Authors: Le Loirec, C., Riffard, C., Barran, F., Bellanger, V., Peneliau, Y., Villard, M., Berson, X., Jeury, F., Eschbach, R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activation; DARWIN; Decommissioning; IncerD; TRIPOLI-4; Uncertainty
• ISSN: 0306-4549; 1873-2100
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anucene.2019.05.054

•Control rods positions have to be taken into account for decommissioning studies.•Last history step has to be described precisely for activation estimation.•ND uncertainties lead to a maximal activity uncertainty of 12.3%.•Impurities concentrations are the first source of uncertainty in activation studies. Only 13 nuclear power plants have been completely decommissioned worldwide. The core of the dismantling process is the production and the management of radiological wastes. Radiological characterization of components is thus of utmost importance. Because in situ measurements of the radionuclides inventory can be technically difficult, application of computational approaches based on neutron transport calculations and radionuclide inventory calculations are now used for initial characterization. This characterization is marred by uncertainties that can penalize the dismantling process and induce supplementary financial costs. To date, only some studies deal with the analysis of these sources of uncertainties. In this study, we present a new code package based on CEA codes for the radiological characterization of facilities under decommissioning and we analyze the impact of some input data and the influence of some modeling biases. We also estimate the impact of some nuclear data uncertainties on the final radionuclides inventory.