Study on Shielding Requirements for Radioactive Waste Transportation in a Mo-99 Production Plant - 13382
Brazil is currently planning to produce {sup 99}Mo from fission of low enriched uranium (LEU) targets. The planned end of irradiation activity of {sup 99}Mo is about 185 TBq (5 kCi) per week to meet the present domestic demand of {sup 99m}Tc generators. The radioactive wastes from the production plant will be transferred to a waste treatment facility at the same site. The total activity of the actinides, fission and activation products present in the wastes can be predicted based on the yields of fission and activation data for the irradiation conditions, such as composition and mass of uranium targets, irradiation time, neutron flux, production schedule, etc., which were in principle already established by the project management. The transportation of the wastes from the production plant to the treatment facility will be done by means of special shielded packages. An assessment of the shielding required for the packages has been done and the results are presented here, aiming at contributing to the design of the waste management facility for the {sup 99}Mo production plant. (authors)