Radioactive Contamination Control by Atmospheric Dispersion Assessment of Airborne Indicator Contaminants: Numerical Model Validation

Autor: Ahmed Dahia, Djemai Merrouche, Tahar Rezoug
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Environmental Modeling & Assessment. 23:401-414
ISSN: 1573-2967
1420-2026
DOI: 10.1007/s10666-018-9598-2
Popis: In this work, a numerical model is proposed to estimate air concentration of released airborne radioactive contaminants 131I and 137Cs. A Gaussian dispersion model is used to assess the atmospheric dispersion of radioactive contaminants released continuously from a nuclear power plant as a result of an accident. The model uses various input parameters such as source height, release rate, stability class, wind speed, and wind direction. The validation of the model was carried out by comparing its predicted values with published experimental data. The model was extensively tested by simulating several accidental situations. The main conclusion drawn from these tests is that for large downwind distances from the release point, the contaminant concentrations predicted by the model diverge drastically from measured data, while for short distances, the predicted values generally agree quite well with experimental data. The obtained activity concentrations range from 1.57 × 102 to 6.43 × 103 Bq/m3 for 131I and from 3.18 × 10−2 to 9.72 × 102 Bq/m3 for 137Cs. The estimated standard deviation coefficients values range of 7.2 to 6847.7 m, and the maximum absolute error predicted by the model for these parameters was less than 5%.
Databáze: OpenAIRE