Dose Rate Investigation for Cobalt Isotope Rods Retrieval Campaign
GE-Hitachi (GEH) partnered with Exelon for a first of a kind program to generate cobalt-60 (Co-60) sources at Clinton Power Station (CPS). The cobalt targets are placed within the fuel bundle, double encapsulated in metal rods, and irradiated in the Boiling Water Reactor for activation. After the bundle is discharged, the Co-60 sources are harvested for medical and industrial applications. In order to ensure safe shipment of the Co-60 sources, shielding evaluations are required. As required by 10 CFR 71, a licensing basis evaluation was performed and submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and approved as a Letter Authorization. This 10 CFR 71 evaluation utilizes bounding design inputs to demonstrate compliance with the regulatory limits. The retrieval campaign of the Co-60 rods involves disassembly of the bundle/rods, loading into a material basket, and then loading the material basket into GEHitachi's Model 2000 cask that is part of the Type B Transportation Package. As part of conservative decision making, CPS wanted confidence that measurements taken at various locations around the material basket loaded with Co-60 rods are consistent or bounded by the dose rate calculations performed by GEH. This would ensure that after all loading operations are completed, and the Model 2000 package is in the shipping configuration (i.e., cask drained and secured within the Model 2000 overpack), the dose rates would meet 10 CFR 71 shipping requirements. In addition, dose rate predictions were used to develop an ALARA plan at CPS to ensure radiological safety of the workers. To support CPS, a second, more realistic shielding evaluation was performed to verify the as planned loading. (authors)