Dose refinement. ARAC's role
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); LLNL
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
The Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC), located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, since the late 1970's has been involved in assessing consequences from nuclear and other hazardous material releases into the atmosphere. ARAC's primary role has been emergency response. However, after the emergency phase, there is still a significant role for dispersion modeling. This work usually involves refining the source term and, hence, the dose to the populations affected as additional information becomes available in the form of source term estimates release rates, mix of material, and release geometry and any measurements from passage of the plume and deposition on the ground. Many of the ARAC responses have been documented elsewhere. 1 Some of the more notable radiological releases that ARAC has participated in the post-emergency phase have been the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (NPP) accident outside Harrisburg, PA, the 1986 Chernobyl NPP accident in the Ukraine, and the 1996 Japan Tokai nuclear processing plant explosion. ARAC has also done post-emergency phase analyses for the 1978 Russian satellite COSMOS 954 reentry and subsequent partial burn up of its on board nuclear reactor depositing radioactive materials on the ground in Canada, the 1986 uranium hexafluoride spill in Gore, OK, the 1993 Russian Tomsk-7 nuclear waste tank explosion, and lesser releases of mostly tritium. In addition, ARAC has performed a key role in the contingency planning for possible accidental releases during the launch of spacecraft with radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) on board (i.e. Galileo, Ulysses, Mars-Pathfinder, and Cassini), and routinely exercises with the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center (FRMAC) in preparation for offsite consequences of radiological releases from NPPs and nuclear weapon accidents or incidents. Several accident post-emergency phase assessments are discussed in this paper in order to illustrate ARAC's roll in dose refinement. A brief description of the tools (the models) then and now, is presented followed by a description of how these models have been applied during the post-emergency phase to various events.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 8277
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC--129935; DP0402061; ON: DE00008277
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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