Safety Review Models on Radioactive Source Term Design For PWR Waste Treatment Systems

The source of all liquid, gaseous and solid radioactive waste in the pressure water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant (NPP) originate from leakage of fission products out of the fuel rods into the primary coolant and neutron activation of materials within and around the primary coolant system and reactor vessel. The source term design used to determine the concentrations of radionuclides in the reactor coolant, which could be: (1) A conservative source term which predicts the maximum concentration of nuclides in the Reactor Coolant System establishes the design basis of the various onsite processing systems for the purpose of defining system capacity and shielding requirements and (2) A realistic source term for the purpose of evaluating the reasonably expected inventories and releases of radionuclides under normal operating condition, including anticipated operational occurrences. This paper will discuss the safety review models on source term design for the PWR waste system mainly on the basis of the conception of the conservative source term.