Assessment of accidental release of 131 I from Egyptian radioisotopes production factory (original) (raw)

One of the main studies that must be conducted before installing or building a radioisotopes production factory (RPF) is the radiological effect of the accidental releasing of the radioisotopes on the personnel and the environment surrounding the factory. The expected dose levels and the radioactive contamination areas must be determined to prepare the proper countermeasure after the hypothetical accident. In this study, the radioisotopes production factory is built inside a nuclear research center for production of 131 I and 99 Mo from irradiated low enrichment uranium (LEU) plates. It contains hot cells for extracting and preparing the 131 I and 99 Mo after irradiating the LEU plates inside the reactor core. The study focuses on evaluating the dose levels around the RPF after the accidental release of 131 I due to malfunction during the 131 I preparation process inside the iodine hot cell. Conservatively, the maximum amount of the 131 I release would be considered to calculate the maximum dose received by the personnel after the accident. The radiation dose levels around the RPF would be computed using GENII-2 code taking the site meteorological data into consideration. The results show that maximum dose would be located at distances from 800 to 5500 m from the RPF building at the direction ranging between 140 o and 200 o. The result shows that the maximum dose would be more than the permissible limit for the worker. The study ensures the importance of instant distributing the potassium iodide tablets to the persons who locate around the RPF building after the accident.