The Attenuation of Neutron Dose Rates through the Steel Pressure Vessels of Magnox Power Plants

Abstract

This paper describes the calculation of the attenuation of neutron dose through the steel pressure vessels of Magnox power plant operated by BNFL, Magnox Generation Division. These data are required for the assessment of the structural integrity of the plant. Detailed three-dimensional neutron transport models of the reactors, pressure vessels and surrounding bioshields have been developed using the AEA Technology Monte-Carlo code MCBEND. These have been used to calculate neutron fluxes through the pressure vessel in both sub-core and side-core regions of pressure vessels, the two bounding extremes of the incident neutron spectra. The effect of postulated cracks in the RPV is shown not to influence the predicted neutron doses. A comparison with neutron fluxes measured from through wall samples removed from a decommissioned reactor show the calculation route to be accurate.