Development of an advanced atmospheric/transport model for emergency response purposes

Technical Report · Fri Jul 12 04:00:00 EDT 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5720027· OSTI ID:5720027

Fast, J D; O'Steen, B L; Addis, R P

Atmospheric transport and diffusion models have been developed for real-time calculations of the location and concentration of toxic or radioactive materials during an accidental release at the Savannah River Site (SRS). These models are based Gaussian distributions and have been incorporated into an automated menu-driven program called the WIND (Weather INformation and Display) system. The WIND system atmospheric models employ certain assumptions that allow the computations of the ground-level concentration of toxic or radioactive materials to be made quickly. Gaussian models, such as PF/PL and 2DPUF, suffer from serious limitations including the inability to represent recirculation of pollutants in complex terrain, the use of one stability class at a given time to represent turbulent mixing over heterogeneous terrain, and the use of a wind field computed at only one height in the atmosphere. These limitations arise because the fundamental conservation relations of the atmosphere have been grossly simplified. Three-dimensional coupled atmospheric-dispersion models are not limited by the over-simplifications of the Gaussian assumption and have been used in the past to predict the transport of pollutants in a variety of atmospheric circulations. The disadvantage of these models is that they require large amounts of computational time; however, technology has progressed enough so that real-time simulations of dispersion may be made. These complex models can be run in an operational mode so that routine forecasts of the wind field and particulate concentration can be made.

• Research Organization: Westinghouse Savannah River Co., Aiken, SC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-89SR18035
• OSTI ID: 5720027
• Report Number(s): WSRC-RP-91-577; ON: DE92009627
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
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58 GEOSCIENCES
580000 -- Geosciences
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
ATOMIZATION
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COORDINATED RESEARCH PROGRAMS
DISTRIBUTION
DOSIMETRY
EMERGENCY PLANS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FLOW MODELS
GAUSSIAN PROCESSES
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
ISOTOPES
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOISOTOPES
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SIMULATION
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
TOXIC MATERIALS
W CODES
WEATHER