Comparison of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s CAP88 PC versions 3.0 and 4.0

Journal Article · Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Health Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1097/HP.0000000000000314· OSTI ID:1215498

Jannik, Tim ^[1]; Farfan, Eduardo B. ^[2]; Dixon, Ken ^[1]; Newton, Joseph ^[3]; Sailors, Christopher ^[3]; Johnson, Levi ^[3]; Moore, Kelsey ^[3]; Stahman, Richard ^[3]

---

1. Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)
2. Kennesaw State Univ., Marietta, GA (United States)
3. Georgia Regents Univ., Augusta, GA (United States)

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) with the assistance of Georgia Regents University, completed a comparison of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) environmental dosimetry code CAP88 PC V3.0 with the recently developed V4.0. CAP88 is a set of computer programs and databases used for estimation of dose and risk from radionuclide emissions to air. At the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, CAP88 is used by SRNL for determining compliance with EPA's National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (40 CFR 61, Subpart H) regulations. Using standardized input parameters, individual runs were conducted for each radionuclide within its corresponding database. Some radioactive decay constants, human usage parameters, and dose coefficients changed between the two versions, directly causing a proportional change in the total effective ¹³⁷Cs, ³H, ¹²⁹I, ²³⁹Pu, and ⁹⁰Sr) is provided. In general, the total effective doses will decrease for alpha/beta emitters because of reduced inhalation and ingestion rates in V4.0. However, for gamma emitters, such as ⁶⁰Co and ¹³⁷Cs, the total effective doses will increase because of changes EPA made in the external ground shine calculations.

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC09-08SR22470
• OSTI ID: 1215498
• Report Number(s): SRNL-STI-2015-00044; TRN: US1500712
• Journal Information: Health Physics, Vol. 109; ISSN 0017-9078
• Publisher: Health Physics Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
dosimetry
environmental
air dispersion
modeling