Professional paper
Radiation Protection Performance Indicators at the Nuclear Power Plant Krško
Helena Janžekovič
Abstract
Nuclear power plant safety performance indicators are developed “by nuclear operating organisations to monitor their own performance and progress, to set their own challenging goals for improvement, and to gain additional perspective on performance relative to that of other plants”. In addition, performance indicators are widely used by regulatory authorities although the use is not harmonised. Two basic performance indicators related to good radiation protection practice are collective radiation exposure and volume of low-level radioactive waste. In 2000, Nuclear Power Plant Krško, a Westinghouse pressurised water reactor with electrical output 700 MW, finished an extensive modernisation including the replacement of both steam generators. While the annual volume of low-level radioactive waste does not show a specific trend related to modernisation, the annual collective dose reached maximum, i.e. 2.60 man Sv, and dropped to 1.13 man Sv in 2001. During the replacement of the steam generators in 2000, the dose associated with this activity was 1.48 man Sv. The annual doses in 2002 and 2003 were 0.53 and 0.80 man Sv, respectively, nearing thus the goal set by the US Institute of Nuclear Power Operators, which is 0.65 man Sv. Therefore, inasmuch as collective dose as the radiation protection performance indicator are concerned, the modernisation of the Krško nuclear power plant was a success.
Keywords
annual collective dose; low-level radioactive waste; Krško; nuclear power plant; nuclear power operator; occupational dose; outage; performance indicators; radiation protection
Hrčak ID:
3929
URI
Publication date:
13.6.2006.
Visits: 3.360 *