NEA-1735 CARL 2.3

1. NAME OR DESIGNATION OF PROGRAM:  CARL 2.3.

3. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM OR FUNCTION

The CARL (Calculation of Radiotoxicities Lifetime) Code was originally developed in 2003 for master degree thesis purposes in MathCad environment. It originally calculated the radiotoxic (ingestion) inventory evolution vs. time of a given radionuclide composition. It was developed in order to perform the complex calculations regarding the nuclear spent fuel hazard vs. time (it was assumed that water could, in a remote future, corrode casks and transport radionuclides to biosphere). It is well known in fact that the danger coming from nuclear waste over time decreases continuously due to radioactive decay.
  
Version 2.1 of the code was developed in Matlab environment (Matlab 6.5 - release 13 or higher required), and was strongly enhanced: it performs in addition to radiotoxicity, also activity, dose and decay power calculations. It displays also the 'Gamma Spectrum', a 3-D plot indicating the activity of gamma rays vs. time and radiation energy. Code's input can be given manually (in grams for every nuclide), or by file (MCB-1C, MONTEBURNS-1.0 output file or CARL input file).
  
The version 2.2 of the code presents the additional features: it includes U232 isotope (very useful in thorium fuel cycles calculations) and common nuclear reactors activation materials (Cr51, Mn56, Fe59, Co60, Ni65, Cu64, Zn65, Zn69, Zr95, Mo99, Ta182, W187), and displays also two additional plots indicating the equivalent gamma dose rate (in mSv/h) vs. time (the distance considered, in meters, is assigned in input), both in air and in concrete/rock; moreover it displays the masses (in grams) in the text output file of all the radionuclides at the various logarithmically spaced time points.

The last release of the code (2.3 version) includes some more radionuclides in the database, mainly utilized in nuclear applications different from energy production: Na-24, Ca-45, B-r82, Ba-140, Ir-192, Po-218, Ra-226, Ra-228. Moreover it was designed in order to allow radiation shielding calculations: the gamma spectrum was improved and a new plot indicating the activity x energy vs. time was added (in order to determine the most dangerous gamma emission spectrum over time).

4. METHODS

Bateman equations based; the code solves the problem for every single radionuclide given in input and then sums up the results, displaying a set of plots indicating toxicity, radiotoxicity, activity, gamma spectrum and comparing masses with a given reference composition.

5. RESTRICTIONS ON THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PROBLEM

The code was tested successfully in MATLAB 6.5, 7.0 and 7.1 environments: exceptionally with 7.0 and 7.1 versions it could jam when are considered single radioisotopes with short half lives compared to the time interval spanned (i.e.: when the calculated quantities become lower than 10E-100).

6. TYPICAL RUNNING TIME

2 seconds (AMD 1.7 GHz processor, 512 Mb DDR memory). It is interactive.

10. REFERENCES

[1] "Nuclear Reactor Engineering", Samuel Glasstone, Alexander Sesonske - Fourth Edition - Chapmann & Hall
[2] - "Introductory Nuclear Physics" - Kenneth S. Krane - Wiley - 1988
[3] - IAEA23.xls - http://www.doseinfo-radar.com
[4] - "Nuclides and Isotopes - Chart of the Nuclides" - Fifteen Edition - Lockheed Martin, GE Nuclear Energy - 1996
[5] - Radiation Decay,  version 4 - Freeware Software by Charles Hacker - 29 September 2005

- V. Romanello, G. Lomonaco, N. Cerullo:
CARL 2.3 Code's User Manual

11. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

The software was implemented under WINDOWS 2000 operating system. It has been tested under WINDOWS ME and WINDOWS XP operating systems, too. It requires MATLAB 6.5 (or higher) software.

15. NAME AND ESTABLISHMENT OF AUTHORS

Ing. Vincenzo ROMANELLO - Ing. Guglielmo LOMONACO - Prof. Nicola CERULLO
University of Pisa
DIMNP - Department of Mechanical, Nuclear and Production Engineering
Via Diotisalvi n. 2
56126 Pisa, ITALY

CARL23.m: main program (all subprogram calls contained)
carl11.m: subprogram to perform chain decay calculations (actinides)
carl13.m: subprogram to perform single step decay calc ulations (fission
products)
read_CARL.m: subprogram to read data input in CARL 2.3 format
read_MCB.m: subprogram to read data input from MCB-1C output file
read_MONTEBURNS.m: subprogram to read data input from MONTEBURNS output file
readme.txt: general use information file
carl_Unat.txt: sample input file in CARL 2.3 format (10 metric tons of natural
uranium)
carl_Ref.txt: sample input file in CARL 2.3 format for a reference composition
htrb09.bout: sample input file from MCB-1C code (spent fuel composition from
HTR, pebble bed) - first generation plutonium, 900 K
carl_Pu_RG.txt: sample input file of 1 gram of plutonium (reactor grade);
carl_unity.txt: sample input file with 1 gram of every considered radionuclide;
htrb15.bout: sample input file from MCB-1C code (spent fuel composition from
HTR, pebble bed) - first generation plutonium, 1500 K
htrThPu.bout: sample input file from MCB-1C code (spent fuel composition from
HTR, pebble bed) - 1/2 first generation plutonium, 1/2 natural thorium
htrThPu3.bout: sample input file from MCB-1C code (spent fuel composition from
HTR, pebble bed) - 1/3 first generation plutonium, 2/3 natural thorium
htrwg.bout: sample input file from MCB-1C code (spent fuel composition from
HTR,pebble bed) - 1/3 weapon grade plutonium, 2/3 natural thorium
gcrb.out: sample input file from MONTEBURNS code
gcrb2.out: sample input file from MONTEBURNS code
gcrbm.out: sample input file from MONTEBURNS code
htr1P3T3.out: sample input file from MONTEBURNS code
htrPuTh3.out: sample input file from MONTEBURNS code output file
htr5P5T3.out: sample input file from MONTEBURNS code output file
htrb09o.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 30
htrb15o.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 30
htrbThPu3o.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 10
htrbThPuo.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 10
htrwgo.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 30
gcrbo.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 10
gcrb2o.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 10
gcrbmo.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 10
htr1P3T3o.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 30
htr5P5T3o.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 30
htrPuTh3o.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file - step 30
carl_Unato.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file
carl_Refo.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file
carl_Pu_RGo.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file
carl_unity_o.txt: CARL 2.3 output text file
Carl 2.3 Code User Manual.pdf: CARL 2.3 code user manual
CARL2.3_descriptions.pdf: Description of CARL 2.3 files