A study of the dose reduction benefits of electrostatic precipitation in the capture of radionuclide aerosols produced during decommissioning processes

Radionuclide aerosols are produced during nuclear decommissioning processes. These aerosols, if not controlled, can spread and impart a dose to workers and the environment. This work proposes the employment of electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) as area filters that capture radionuclide aerosols produced during nuclear dismantlement. These filtration systems demonstrate advantages in a nuclear dismantlement context over other filtration systems: they demonstrably capture aerosols at a similar capture efficiency to high-efficiency filters but can handle the higher dust loading from nuclear dismantlement and produce less waste volume. As a proof of concept, a laboratory-scale ESP were designed and built. Its abilities to capture aerosols were tested using analogues to radionuclide aerosols produced during nuclear dismantlement. To better understand the size and efficiency requirements of area filtration systems, a radionuclide aerosol concentration model has been developed to estimate aerosol dose reduction, taking into account air exchange and filtration capacities. The model suggests that capture efficiencies are not the primary engineering parameter to optimize for dose reduction. Instead, it is recommended to maximize the filter throughput weighted by its capture efficiency to better reduce dose. Given the dust loading in dismantlement scenarios, along with sizing requirements from the model, electrostatic precipitation systems are a feasible engineering control for radionuclide aerosols.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nuclear Engineering

Grantor

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Somer, Nicholas

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Harvel, Glenn

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10155/1906

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ontariotechu.scholaris.ca:10155/1906