Reassessment and reinforcement of nuclear decay database used for dose calculation

A nuclear decay database of ICRP Publ.38 has been used for calculating dose coefficients for intake of radionuclides and effective dose rates for submersion. Publ.38 were compiled from decay data sets of the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF), which were prepared in the 1970's. It is very important to update the database by taking the recent revision of the ENSDF into account. This paper presents a comprehensive study on a reassessment and reinforcement of the nuclear decay database of Publ.38. For all 820 radionuclides listed in Publ.38, half-lives, branching ratios of the decay modes, and energies and intensities of radiations emitted were calculated from decay data sets of the ENSDF, the latest version in 1997, and compared with those of Publ.38. In most nuclides, the calculated values from the ENSDF were in good agreement with those of Publ.38. However, significant differences in the half-lives and the total energies of radiations were found in several nuclides, notably in 60Fe, 79Se, 80Sr, 108mAg, 126Ba, 202Pb, and 231Th. It was shown that internal dose coefficients of 202Pb calculated using the two decay data differ by a factor of two as a result of revision in the decay data sets. The results suggest that the nuclear decay data of Publ.38 are still adequate for dose calculation in most nuclides but the update of the data is required for several ones. Nuclear decay data for dose calculation were compiled from the ENSDF for 204 nuclides that are not listed in Publ.38. The compiled data involve 162 nuclides with half-lives ≥10 min, 28 daughters and 14 nuclides that are important in fusion reactor facilities. Analysis of the decay data sets was performed to check their self-consistency and possible revisions were made for their format and syntax errors, level schemes, normalization records, and so on . The revised data sets were processed by the EDISTR code to compile the decay data of Publ.38 form. The data were presented as a data book, JAERI Data/Code 99-035, and ASCII files that can be used in computer codes. These data will be widely used for internal and external dose calculations. (author)