Radiation Physics and Engineering
A peer-reviewed journal published by K. N. Toosi University of Technology

Determining the optimum thickness of a hot cell for safe processing of spent fuel plate and cobalt source

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Mostafa Hasanzadeh
Ehsan Boustani
Ehsan Zarifi
Mohammad Hadi Porhemmat

Reactor and Nuclear Safety School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute (NSTRI)‎, ‎Tehran‎, ‎Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/rpe.2025.520940.1271
Abstract
To design a hot cell, it is essential to consider all safety requirements and radiation protection acceptance criteria. In this research, the design of a hot cell with specific geometric dimensions and materials was simulated using MCNP code. Then, the gamma dose rate was calculated for a 60Co source with 1.8×1013 Bq activity and a spent fuel plate with 90% burnup and a cooling time of 30 days to determine the appropriate shielding thickness. In these calculations, the source intensity and the gamma spectrum of the spent fuel plate were obtained using ORIGEN code. According to the references, the gamma dose rate criterion of 10 μSv.h-1 was used to determine the thickness of the hot cell wall, which is made of barite concrete with 3.35 g.cm-3 density and a combination of concrete and paraffin, in different orientations. The results indicate that the necessary optimal thicknesses of shielding for different locations are 80, 65 and 75 cm respectively regarding the irradiation safety criteria.

Highlights

  • Determining the optimum thickness of a hot cell for safe processing of spent fuel plate and cobalt source.
  • The design of a hot cell with specific geometric dimensions and materials was simulated using MCNP code.
  • The source intensity and the gamma spectrum of the spent fuel plate were obtained using ORIGEN code.

Keywords

Hot cell
Shielding calculations
Co-60 source
Fuel burnup
Optimal thickness
MCNP and ORIGEN codes

 

Copyright
RPE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Conflict of Interest

‎The authors declare no potential conflict of interest regarding the publication of this work‎.

Funding

‎The authors declare that no funds‎, ‎grants‎, ‎or other financial support were received during the preparation of this manuscript‎.

 

 
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Radiation Physics and Engineering
Volume 6, Issue 4
Autumn 2025
Pages 23-28

  • Receive Date 03 May 2025
  • Revise Date 11 July 2025
  • Accept Date 12 July 2025

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