Effects of rainstorms and runoff on consequences of nuclear reactor accidents

Technical Report · Fri Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1976

OSTI ID:7326475

Ritchie, L T; Brown, W D; Wayland, J R

A preliminary model describing the effects of washout and runoff on the consequences of a nuclear reactor accident is presented. The most important new feature of this stratified model relative to the model in WASH-1400 is the spatial structure of rainstorms and runoff consisting of four levels of rain activity that are normalized by rain gage data. The predicted concentrations of radioactivity and resultant health consequences of the stratified model are compared with those of the model in WASH-1400 for simplified rainstorms with fixed meteorological conditions, an actual rainstorm, and a stratified sample run consisting of 91 separate reactor accidents. In the case of individual storms, runoff and the spatial structure of the rain in the new model can result in health consequences that are significantly different from those of the WASH-1400 model. The differences between the predictions of the two models are small for the stratified sample run.

• Research Organization: Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, N.Mex. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: E(29-1)-789
• OSTI ID: 7326475
• Report Number(s): SAND-76-0429
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220900 -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
500300* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACCIDENTS
AEROSOLS
AIR
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
COLLOIDS
CONTAMINATION
DISASTERS
DISPERSIONS
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FALLOUT
FLUIDS
GASES
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
LOCAL FALLOUT
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METEOROLOGY
PRECIPITATION SCAVENGING
RADIOACTIVE AEROSOLS
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
RAIN
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLS
STORMS
SURFACE AIR