Currently, Republic of Korea operates 23 nuclear power plants, and although there are fluctuations every year, nuclear power plants are responsible for about 25% of Korea''s total electricity production. In 2009, Korea showed the world''s best nuclear technology by exporting four UAE Baraka nuclear power plants. Nuclear technology includes not only nuclear energy used for power generation but also radiation technology through nuclear energy. Radiation technology became a signal for the development of radiation technology in Korea due to the Second Nuclear Comprehensive Promotion Plan and the enactment of the Radiation and Radioisotope Use Promotion Act.
Radiation and radioisotope technology are used for basic and applied research in various fields such as biotechnology, agriculture, and materials, and research is actively conducted based on this at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute Advanced Radiation Technology Institute (hereinafter referred to as the ARTI). In particular, the ARTI operates a 30 MeV cyclotron for research, developed by the KIRAMS(Korean Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences), and produces basic, applied science research, medical and industrial radioisotopes through proton beams generated by cyclotron. Recently, 89Zr that has been successfully optimized is being delivered to a domestic hospital for research. In addition, various radioisotopes such as 44Sc, 55Co, 64Cu, and 68Ga are being researched for the localization at the ARTI. Once production is in full swing, it is necessary to evaluate the shielding of the container for the nuclide before transport. Radioisotope containers are generally classified into A, B(U), B(M), C type etc. according to the standards defined in the Nuclear Safety Act. Most of the nuclides produced or planned by the ARTI are positron-emitting nuclides, and the transport container shielding evaluation for radioisotopes based on type A container was performed using the MCNP code. Therefore, in this paper, radiation shielding evaluation was carried out using MCNP code for the radioisotope transport container centering on 89Zr, which was recently produced by the ARTI.
The radioisotope container modeled in this study is considered to be sufficiently reliable because the deviation between calculated and measured values is less than 4%. So, it is applicable to radioisotopes that will be produced in the future.