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The dose from a possible accident at a microwave-based spent resin mixture treatment facility that was to be installed and operated at the Wolsong nuclear power plant was analyzed to evaluate the radiological safety prior to its installation and operation. The dose to which workers and nearby residents are likely to be exposed was calculated based on the atmospheric dispersion and deposition factors using the XOQDOQ code. The highest atmospheric dispersion factors were 1.349E-05 s/m3 (workers) and 1.534E-06 s/m3 (residents). The highest doses due to emissions from the mock-up tank before operation were 1.91E-06 mSv (workers) and 1.78E-07 mSv (residents). Even after 3 h of operation, emissions from the mock-up tank had the greatest impact ranging from 4.63E-08 to 1.24E-06 mSv (workers) and 2.74E-10 to 1.16E-07 mSv (residents), respectively. The doses were 7.09E-09–4.55E-07 mSv and 4.18E-11–4.25E-08 mSv at 4–5 h of operation, and the maximum doses after operation reached 5.69E-07 mSv and 5.31E-08 mSv for the workers and residents, respectively.Even at the exclusion area boundary (EAB), 4.76E-08–9.51E-07 mSv (annual dose:9.52E-05–1.90E-03 mSv/y) was below the dose limit of the EAB, and the safety of the facility installation inside the NPP was confirmed.

The radiological safety of workers in a newly developed microwave-based spent resin treatment facility was assessed based on work location and operational scenarios. The results show that the remote-operation room worker was exposed to maximum annual dose of 3.19E+00 mSv, which is 15.9% of the dose limit, thereby confirming radiological safety. Inside the pathway, annual doses in the range of 7.87E-02–2.07E-01 mSv were measured initially at the mock-up tank and later at the point between the spent resin separation and treatment parts. The dose of emergency maintenance workers was below the dose limit (4.08E-03–4.99E+00 mSv); however, before treatment (separation and microwave), the dose of maintenance and repair workers exceeded the dose limit. The doses of the effluent removal workers at the zeolite and activated carbon storage tank and spent resin storage tank were the lowest at 2.79E-01–2.87E-01 mSv and 9.27E-01 mSv in “1 h” and “4–5 h of operation”, respectively. The immediately lower and upper layers of the facility room exhibited the highest annual doses of 1.84E+00 and 3.22E+00 mSv, respectively. Through this study, a scenario that can minimize the dose considering the movement of spent resin through the facility can be developed.

As NPPs continue to operate, liquid waste continues to be generated, and containers are needed to store and transport them at low cost and high capacity. To transport and store liquid phase very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW), a container is designed by considering related regulations. The design was constructed based on the existing container design, which easily transports and stores liquid waste. The radiation shielding calculation was performed according to the composition change of barium sulfate (BaSO4) using the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) code. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) without mixing the additional BaSO4, represented the maximum dose of 1.03 mSv/hr (