Skyshine dose evaluation of trench disposal facilities for waste generated from research, industrial and medical facilities

Nakamura, Mizuki ; Izumo, Sari ; Ogawa, Rina; Nakata, Hisakazu ; Amazawa, Hiroya; Sakai, Akihiro 

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been establishing as the implementing body of the near surface disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) generated from research facilities and other facilities in order to actualize the near surface disposal. It is necessary to evaluate the effective doses by direct and skyshine -rays from disposal facilities and reduce the doses below the target dose (50 Sv/y) at the site boundary for the safety assessment during operation. It was shown at the results of conceptual design that the distance from the trench disposal facilities to site boundary needed to be kept more than 120m in order to satisfy the target dose. However, the design of trench disposal facilities was changed because of increasing amount of waste subject to the trench disposal. Therefore, the dose by skyshine -rays from trench disposal facilities was recalculated by use of two-dimensional discrete ordinates Sn code DOT 3.5. As a result, it was evaluated that the dose by skyshine -rays from each trench facility at the site boundary whose distance was 120m from a trench facility was lower than 50 Sv/y, respectively, and the dose added up the doses from trench facilities was also lower than 50 Sv/y. In addition, it was suggested to reduce the target skyshine dose by thickening the covered soil on the top layer.