[ RadSafe ] RADCAT/RADTRAN Questions

[JOHN.RICH at sargentlundy.com]

Radasfers: 

I just started using the TRAGSI/RADCAT/RADTRAN suite of codes and and have 
a couple of questions. 

Question 1
RADTRAN has a selected list of radionuclides that is fairly complete for 
spent fuel with a long cooling period (5 years minimum).  However, it does 
not include all the radionuclides that would be in a radwaste shipment. 
How have people dealt with this? For example, have you added the 
radionuclides that you consider important, have the missing nuclides, 
e.g., Ag110m , been rationalized away, etc.?

Question 2
Is there a user's group for RADTRAN.  As near as I can tell, it is in use 
by a wide range of organizations (including NRC and DOE), but is not 
supported by any of them. 

I'll get on my soapbox for a minute here - - RADCAT/RADTRAN is not a 
package that should be maintained by private organizations and should be 
supported by the NRC, since it appears to be the accepted standard for the 
the new plants.  I can go into more detail, but to make a long story 
short, right now there is no financial support associated with it, and if 
this continues it could become an orphan code very quickly.

Question 3
Has anybody used assumptions other than the default values, and if you 
did, were the results significantly different.  For example, I played 
around with the gamma fraction , and it didn't make much difference.

Any help would be appreciated. 
Thanx in advance  - -jmr


Rich
312-269-3768