Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology

Nuclear power utilities should establish a site-specific groundwater monitoring program for early detection of unplanned radioactive material';s releases which can occur due to degradation of systems, structures and components of the nuclear power plants in order to keep the impact of the unplanned releases on the environment and the residents as low as reasonably achievable. For this end, groundwater flow on site should be evaluated based on characterization of the hydrogeology of a site of concern. This paper aims to provide data necessary for establishing groundwater monitoring program which is currently considered at Kori nuclear power plant 1 by characterizing groundwater flow system on the site based on the existing hydrogeological studies and related documents, and by modeling tritium transport. The results showed that the major groundwater flow direction was south-west and that most of groundwater entered a southern and eastern seas. Although the tritium plume also released into the sea, its rate was delayed by dewatering sump.

Keywords

Unplanned Release,Groundwater,Tritium,Monitoring,Modeling