Intact decommissioning: A dose assessment

Intact decommissioning of nuclear power plants is a technically viable alternative to the other decommissioning options. It appears possible, with a high degree of confidence, to establish boundaries that would remain impregnable and therefore prevent the escape of residual radioactivity for at least 100 years (based on very conservative assumptions) following the active phase of decommissioning. By that time, most of the radionuclides would have decayed to insignificant levels leaving, primarily, activity from a few radionuclides remaining in the activated reactor vessel stainless steel internals. Following a postulated breach of the boundary at 100 years, potential public exposures estimated out to 10,000 years would be within regulatory limits, and comparable to those for the other decommissioning scenarios. This study considers a 660 Mw(e) Mark I containment BWR, and a 1,175 MW(e) PWR located in generic environments with characteristics similar to the northeastern and midwestern parts of the United States, respectively. The primary containment boundaries are established as the intact decommissioning boundaries for both plants, and occupational and public doses are calculated