Activation calculations for decommissioning planning of NPPs

By the middle of 2023, all German nuclear power plants (NPPs) will have been shut down. The final shutdown is followed by a post-operational phase in which measures can be carried out to prepare for the NPPs dismantling and decommissioning. One of the essential tasks in planning and preparing an NPP for decommissioning is to obtain precise knowledge of the activation levels in its reactor pressure vessel (RPV), the biological shielding, and other internal components. In that regard, a novel method based on the combined use of two Monte Carlo codes, MCNP6 and FLUKA2021, was developed to serve as a non-destructive tool for evaluating the activation in an NPP. The presentation will give an overview of the methodology and demonstrate its application through the activation calculations of selected components of a German pressurized water reactor (PWR), which is the most common NPP type in Germany.