Development of an intuitive software for planning and optimization of nuclear activities in view of the ALARA principle
The ALARA principle aims to keep radiation exposure of personnel “As Low As Reasonable Achievable” and finds numerous applications in nuclear activities such as design of new installations, maintenance of existing systems, scientific experiments and decommissioning.
SCK CEN has developed since the 1990s the VISIPLAN software as a dose assessment program to assist the ALARA analyst. VISIPLAN version 4, a 3D ALARA planning tool for Nuclear Environments, launched in 2004, is distributed world wide and has a large users group. Next to the use as a calculation tool it has the necessary functionality to make source strength analysis and communicate this to the stake holders.
Objectif
The objective of this Master Thesis is to build on the current experience from VISIPLAN and to develop an intuitive software that uses recent advancements in computer software and hardware. The first part of the Master Thesis will develop a graphical user interface (GUI) – editor – that should allow the user to create a desired environment where several components, objects and radioactive sources can be modelled. The second part of the Master Thesis will focus on the development of the software for calculating the radiation dose rate from a specified activity using the environment created with the GUI.
For the proof of concept (POC) we aim on a creating from scratch in the GUI (editor) a simple 3D model with primitive building blocks (objects) like: box, cylinder, tube, sphere and hollow sphere . These objects have properties like dimensions, material, density,… One or more objects can be collected as a component so that it can be re-used. For the radioactive sources in the model, point and line sources will be implemented as first examples.
Le niveau de diplôme minimum du candidat
- Academic bachelor
Les connaissances préexistantes nécessaires
- Informatics
- Physics