Release Criteria for Decommissioning of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station

摘要

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has established guidelines for allowable levels of residual radioactivity at remote sites in the Surplus Facilities Management Program (SFMP). These guidelines specify that doses to the public from this residual radioactivity must not exceed 500 mrem/year (for up to five years) or 100 mrem/year (for a lifetime), regardless of the use of the land. The guidelines also specify that exposures be further limited, depending on ALARA considerations. The decommissioning of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, done under the auspices of SFMP, is being performed in accordance with these guidelines. It follows that, at the conclusion of the project, the concentrations of residual radioactivity, identified both by isotope and location (x,y,z), must be low enough so that the guidelines (500,100) are not exceeded. Furthermore, the concentrations must be low enough so that additional action which might be taken to reduce them cannot cost effectively decrease the dose to the public. A cost-benefit analysis, based on actual conditions at Shippingport, is being prepared to identify these ''low-enough'' concentrations. Once identified, these concentrations will comprise the release criteria for the site. The analysis will be developed by (1) performing an initial site characterization, (2) employing pathways analyses to compute the dose to a future occupant, (3) costing of proposed site modifications, and (4) repeating a pathways analysis based on each ''as-modified'' location on the site. The result will be a paired set of data relating the cost of modification to the reduction in the dose to the future occupant. (ERA citation 11:037899)