Characterizing the source term in terms of particle size distribution and radionuclide composition

Consequence assessment of a worst-case accidental scenario has been done by others to dimension the emergency preparedness around the ESS facility, but further efforts are needed to understand how inhalation doses will be affected by physiochemical characteristics of the released target particles. This requires 1) knowledge of the target inventory; 2) estimates of e.g. chemical form and particle size of the releases; 3) estimates of the source term in case of various accident scenarios (release rate and chemical form of various radionuclides); 4) estimates of the atmospheric dispersion to assess inhaled activity concentration and associated particle size.

Goal: Investigate the impact of variance and uncertainty in the particle size distribution and radionuclide composition on inhalation dose assessment to workers and members of the public. Identification of critical parameters that have the highest influence on the uncertainty in the predicted internal dose estimates will be made.