ARAC: A computer-based emergency dose-assessment service
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)
Over the past 15 years, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) has developed and evolved a computer-based, real-time, radiological-dose-assessment service for the United States Departments of Energy and Defense. This service is built on the integrated components of real-time computer-acquired meteorological data, extensive computer databases, numerical atmospheric-dispersion models, graphical displays, and operational-assessment-staff expertise. The focus of ARAC is the off-site problem where regional meteorology and topography are dominant influences on transport and dispersion. Through application to numerous radiological accidents/releases on scales from small accidental ventings to the Chernobyl reactor disaster, ARAC had developed methods to provide emergency dose assessments from the local to the hemispheric scale. As the power of computers has evolved inversely with respect to cost and size, ARAC has expanded its service and reduced the response time from hours to minutes for an accident within the United States. Concurrently the quality of the assessments has improved as more advanced models have been developed and incorporated into the ARAC system. This assures a level of consistency as well as experience. ARAC maintains its real-time skills by participation in approximately 150 exercises per year; ARAC also continuously validates its modeling systems by application to all available tracer experiments and data sets. While the most recent major application of ARAC to a real accident event was the Chernobyl disaster, ARAC spent a considerable effort and was well prepared for the potential COSMOS 1900 reactor burnup. Preparation for events such as these provides the impulse for further improvement in data acquisition, databases, mapping, and models. 17 refs., 8 figs.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE/EH
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 5516487
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-99984; CONF-8905115-4; ON: DE90001049
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. international workshop on real-time computing of the environmental consequences of an accidental release to the atmosphere from a nuclear installation, Luxembourg (Luxembourg), 16-19 May 1989
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Real-time global mutual aid for atmopheric releases of radioactivity is possible today
The atmospheric release advisory capability (ARAC): A federal emergency response capability
Related Subjects
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
DETECTION
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EMERGENCY PLANS
EVALUATION
REAL TIME SYSTEMS
ACCIDENTS
MANAGEMENT
550300* - Cytology
990210 - Supercomputers- (1987-1989)