Minimization of personnel dose costs using route optimization

The principle of optimization is of great practical importance for ensuring the radiation safety of personnel at all stages of the NPP life cycle, especially, newly designed nuclear power plants. In 2007, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) issued recommendations (Publication 103). The recommendations further reinforce the importance of optimizing radiation protection by disseminating successful experiences in implementing this requirement in practice, now including situations of planned exposure. The consistent policy pursued by the operating organization of Russia's nuclear power plants (Rosenergoatom Concern) has been pursuing a consistent policy to introduce and implement a methodology for optimizing radiation protection at all nuclear power plants since 1996 (transition to new dose limits), which has led to a reduction in collective radiation doses for personnel by approximately four times. Areas for further optimization of radiation protection for personnel are determined by individual dose management (improving work organization, improving the radiation environment, reducing time spent in dose fields). The objective of the work is to develop a software system that allows the creation of personnel movement routes with minimal total dose exposure in rooms with heterogeneous radiation fields. The following tasks are accomplished to achieve the goal: analysis of the safety movement problem in radiation-hazardous areas; construction of a mathematical model of the radiation field using the radial basis function (RBF) method; development of pathfinding algorithms taking into account dose load (A*, A-star, dynamic programming). The article presents problem solutions using mathematical route optimization methods that minimize personnel dose costs in relation to a real radiation-hazardous room at a nuclear power plant. The main stages of developing an algorithm that automatically generates optimal routes, taking into account the heterogeneous radiation environment in the space, the size of the room, and the location of equipment and other elements within it, are described. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the application of the radial basis function (RBF) method in combination with graph routing algorithms adapted to the radiation dose minimization criterion, as well as in the use of a modified Bellman equation for the optimal selection of the order of passing control points.