1 research outputs found
Modelling the atmospheric dispersion of radiotracers in small-scale, controlled detonations: validation of dispersion models using field test data
A series of modelling exercises, based on field tests conducted in the Czech Republic, were carried
out by the ‘Urban’ Working Groups as part of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s
Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety II, Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact
Assessment (MODARIA) I and MODARIA II international data compilation and model validation
programmes. In the first two of these programmes, data from a series of field tests involving
dispersion of a radiotracer, 99mTc, from small-scale, controlled detonations were used in a
comparison of model predictions with field measurements of deposition. In the third programme,
data from a similar field test, involving dispersion of 140La instead of 99mTc, were used. Use of
longer-lived 140La as a radiotracer allowed a greater number of measurements to be made over a
greater distance from the dispersion point and in more directions than was possible for the earlier
tests involving shorter-lived 99mTc. The modelling exercises included both intercomparison of
model predictions from several participants and comparison of model predictions with the
measured data. Several models (HotSpot, LASAIR, ADDAM/CSA-ERM, plus some research
models) were used in the comparisons, which demonstrated the challenges of modelling dispersion
of radionuclides from detonations and the need for appropriate meteorological measurements