Stochastic sensitivity analysis of the biosphere model for Canadian nuclear fuel waste management

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Waste Management; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0956-053X(93)90009-L· OSTI ID:6321616

Reid, J A.K.; Corbett, B J ^[1]

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1. AECL Research, Pinawa, Manitoba (Canada). Whiteshell Labs.

The biosphere model, BIOTRAC, was constructed to assess Canada's concept for nuclear fuel waste disposal in a vault deep in crystalline rock at some as yet undetermined location in the Canadian Shield. The model is therefore very general and based on the shield as a whole. BIOTRAC is made up of four linked submodels for surface water, soil, atmosphere, and food chain and dose. The model simulates physical conditions and radionuclide flows from the discharge of a hypothetical nuclear fuel waste disposal vault through groundwater, a well, a lake, air, soil, and plants to a critical group of individuals, i.e., those who are most exposed and therefore receive the highest dose. This critical group is totally self-sufficient and is represented by the International Commission for Radiological Protection reference man for dose prediction. BIOTRAC is a dynamic model that assumes steady-state physical conditions for each simulation, and deals with variation and uncertainty through Monte Carlo simulation techniques. This paper describes SENSYV, a technique for analyzing pathway and parameter sensitivities for the BIOTRAC code run in stochastic mode. Results are presented for [sup 129]I from the disposal of used fuel, and they confirm the importance of doses via the soil/plant/man and the air/plant/man ingestion pathways. The results also indicate that the lake/well water use switch, the aquatic iodine mass loading parameter, the iodine soil evasion rate, and the iodine plant/soil concentration ratio are important parameters.

• OSTI ID: 6321616
• Journal Information: Waste Management; (United States), Journal Name: Waste Management; (United States) Vol. 13:2; ISSN WAMAE2; ISSN 0956-053X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540230 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
540330 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
B CODES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BIOSPHERE
CALCULATION METHODS
CANADA
COMPUTER CODES
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DOSES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE PATHWAY
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FOOD CHAINS
FUELS
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
INTERNAL CONVERSION RADIOISOTOPES
IODINE 129
IODINE ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
RADIATION DOSES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
REACTOR MATERIALS
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SOILS
SPENT FUELS
SURFACE WATERS
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES