Core containment radiation dose rates

The production of the key reactant, the hydroxyl radical ( OH), increases with increases in the radiation dose rate to the water. The dose rate to the water depends, of course, on the total amount of fission products and other radionuclides that escape the core and enter the containment. Dose rates to sump waters will vary depending on the type of reactor, the type of accident and with time following an accident. Typical values will be in the range of 1 to 20 kGy hr. ... 

Table 7.IS. Radiation dose rates in the containment atmosphere following core melt (By courtesy of Siemens/KWU)...

Section 2 presents the assumptions and requirements upon which the INEL concept was developed. Section 3 contains an overview of the reactor concept. Section 4 lists the conclusions and recommendations. Most of the technical details and discussions are contained in the appendices. The first task was to examine plutonium destruction rates and isotopics for different neutron spectra, as discussed in Appendix A. This study lead to the adoption of a thermal reactor concept instead of reactors with fast or epithermal neutron spectra. The second task was to study the addition of seed materials for selfprotection from materials diversion. Appendix B illustrates that fission products provide the best. self-protection, and seed materials are not needed for the INEL concept. Various fuel types were investigated and are described in Appendix C. The core neutronics studies presented in Appendix D and thermal-hydraulics studies pre.sented in Appendix E were performed concurrently. An evaluation of potential offsite radiation doses... 

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