Dose assessment of a fresh 43-element CANFLEX-ACR fuel bundle and fresh 37-element fuel bundle

Fresh fuel bundles are handled frequently during fabrication and on-site during inspection and normal CANDU new fuel loading. However, little information is available on the effective dose rates from gamma, Bremsstrahlung and neutron radiation and the equivalent dose rates to skin. In this study, effective dose rates are calculated on the surface of and at distances of 30.48 cm and 1 m from the surface of each fresh fuel bundle using Monte Carlo N-Particle, version 5. The equivalent dose rates to skin are calculated to a tissue depth of 200 mg cm-2. The effective dose rates calculated on the surface of the 37-element and 43-element fresh fuel bundles were 29.3 and 29.1 μSv h-1, respectively. The equivalent dose rate to skin ranged from ∼270 to 300 μSv h-1 at a tissue depth of 7 mg cm-2 from each bundle. The calculated dose rates agree well with measured dose rates and values reported in the literature. (authors)