Analysis of the impact of various vertical release patterns on the atmospheric dispersion and total deposition of Cs-137 from Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident

BİLGİÇ E., Gunduz O.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH, cilt.28, sa.47, ss.66864-66887, 2021 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 28 Sayı: 47
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s11356-021-15211-8
  • Dergi Adı: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, IBZ Online, ABI/INFORM, Aerospace Database, Aqualine, Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), BIOSIS, CAB Abstracts, EMBASE, Environment Index, Geobase, MEDLINE, Pollution Abstracts, Veterinary Science Database, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.66864-66887
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Radioactive release, Injection height, Nuclear power plant accidents, Chernobyl, Source term, FLEXPART, SOURCE-TERM ESTIMATION, RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION, MODEL FLEXPART, RADIONUCLIDES, SIMULATION, TRANSPORT, RECONSTRUCTION, DISCHARGE, EUROPE, I-131
  • Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) catastrophe of 1986 has been a milestone in the use of nuclear power for energy generation. After the accident, various topics have been discussed to evaluate the details of occurrence of the event and to understand its impacts on human, animal and plant life. One of the most controversial topics is the release height and homogeneity of radionuclides at release point in the atmosphere. Currently, there exists no definitive decision on the release height and vertical distribution pattern of radionuclides released from the Chernobyl accident. Based on this premise, this study focuses on the analysis of various possible release patterns along the vertical dimension and the potential influences on the atmospheric dispersion and total deposition with particular reference to Cs-137. For this purpose, some release pattern functions following uniform, Dirac delta, exponential, log-Pearson type III, and cumulative distribution functions along the z-axis were used to simulate the dispersion of Cs-137 released from the accident site. A total of 22 release patterns are produced using different maximum release heights (2000, 3000, and 4000 m). A Lagrangian particle dispersion model, FLEXPART, was then used to conduct simulations for these conditions to assess most coherent dispersion and deposition patterns. Model results from each release function were plotted, compared with each other and verified with measured data. In the functions where the release predominantly existed at lower levels, more extreme values were observed in the close vicinity of the source. Consequently, Dirac delta, log-Pearson type III (1), and exponential functions can be used as worst-case conditions at local scale. On the other hand, simulations also revealed that contamination spread to wider areas in cases where the release occurred from higher levels of the atmosphere. Therefore, log-Pearson type III (2) and cumulative distribution function can be considered more significant concerning a wider distribution of affected areas.