Deposition and dose from the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens

Conference · Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:6720267

Peterson, K R

The downwind deposition and radiation dose have been calculated for the tropospheric part of the ash cloud from the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, using a large-cloud diffusion model. At that time the naturally occurring radionuclides of radium and thorium, whose radon daughters normally seep very slowly from the rocks and soil, were violently released to the atmosphere. The largest dose to an individual from these nuclides is small (in the microrem range), but the population dose to those affected by the radioactivity in the ash is about 100 person-rem. This population dose from Mount St. Helens is much greater than the annual person-rem routinely released by a typical large nuclear power plant. It is estimated that subsequent eruptions of Mount St. Helens have doubled or tripled the person-rem calculated for the initial large eruption; this total population dose is about the same as the lower-bound estimate of the population dose from the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The long-range global ash deposition of the May 18 eruption has been estimated through 1984, using a global deposition model. The maximum deposition is nearly 1000 kg/km/sup 2/ and occurs in the spring of 1981 over middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6720267
• Report Number(s): UCRL-85084; CONF-801160-1; TRN: 81-001992
• Resource Relation: Conference: Symposium and workshop on the Mount St. Helens eruption, Washington, DC, USA, 18 Nov 1980
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ASHES
DEPOSITION
HUMAN POPULATIONS
RADIATION DOSES
VOLCANOES
ERUPTION
CLOUDS
DIFFUSION
GLOBAL ASPECTS
OREGON
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
RADIUM
RADON
THORIUM
ACTINIDES
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
DOSES
ELEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FLUIDS
GASES
MASS TRANSFER
METALS
NONMETALS
NORTH AMERICA
PACIFIC NORTHWEST REGION
POPULATIONS
RARE GASES
RESIDUES
USA
500300* - Environment
Atmospheric- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
510302 - Environment
Terrestrial- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- Terrestrial Ecosystems & Food Chains- (-1987)