Environmental Measurements in an Emergency: This is not a Drill
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Remote Sensing Laboratory
A real-world event such as the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant presented unique challenges in data collection, analysis, and assessment. While emergency responders from the Department of Energy (DOE) are trained regularly to assess the environmental consequences of a radiological or nuclear incident, real-world complexities are difficult or impossible to simulate in such training. The Japan event sharply deviated in several ways and in the very early stages, accurate plume and deposition model predictions were difficult to produce due to the lack of field monitoring data and other information. In addition, there was much less plant monitoring data, essentially no reactor state information, and the meteorological conditions and releases were much more complex. Inevitably, the measurements in Japan presented technical challenges to assessors tasked with ensuring the quality of the finished assessments and data products for government officials, the responder community, and the public. This paper addresses some of the operational real-world complexities; procedures, measurements, or radiological assessments from the Fukushima response are not in the purview of this paper.
- Research Organization:
- US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington DC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE NA Office of Emergency Response (NA-42)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-98CH10886
- OSTI ID:
- 1081479
- Journal Information:
- Health Physics, Vol. 102, Issue 5
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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