Minimum collective dose based optimal evacuation path-planning method under nuclear accidents

•A Minimizing Collective dose based path-planning method (MCPP) was proposed.•The accumulative dose based Dijkstra algorithm was proposed to find the optimal evacuation routes.•The equilibrium model considering road resistance was used to formulate the optimal evacuation path plan under nuclear accidents.•The results showed that the path plan formulated by MCPP method could reasonably reduce personnel radiation exposure during the evacuation process.•By combining the situation of road resistance and dose rate distribution, the obtained path plan can reasonably arrange personnel evacuation and reduce the personnel radiation exposure during the process. The effectiveness of the path plan is the main factor of the evacuation affecting the amount of exposure to personnel, however, the effect of the radiation field distribution has not been fully considered in current studies. In this paper, a Minimizing Collective dose based Path-Planning method (MCPP) was proposed. Among which, the accumulative dose based Dijkstra algorithm was proposed to find the optimal evacuation routes, and then the equilibrium model considering road resistance was used to formulate the optimal evacuation path plan under nuclear accidents, in which the obtained routes were reasonably arranged to evacuate all people with minimize collective dose. This paper used the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station as an application scenario for evacuation simulation to verify the effectiveness of the method. The results showed that the path plan formulated by MCPP method could reasonably reduce personnel radiation exposure during the evacuation process.