 |
| Titel |
Consequences of severe nuclear accidents in Europe |
| VerfasserIn |
Petra Seibert, Delia Arnold, Gabriele Mraz, Nikolaus Arnold, Klaus Gufler, Helga Kromp-Kolb  , Wolfgang Kromp, Philipp Sutter |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2013
|
| Medientyp |
Artikel
|
| Sprache |
Englisch
|
| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 15 (2013) |
| Datensatznummer |
250079268
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Zusammenfassung |
| A first part of the presentation is devoted to the consequences of the severe accident in the
1986 Chernobyl NPP. It lead to a substantial radioactive contaminated of large parts of
Europe and thus raised the awareness for off-site nuclear accident consequences. Spatial
patterns of the (transient) contamination of the air and (persistent) contamination of the
ground were studied by both measurements and model simulations. For a variety of
reasons, ground contamination measurements have variability at a range of spatial
scales. Results will be reviewed and discussed. Model simulations, including inverse
modelling, have shown that the standard source term as defined in the ATMES
study (1990) needs to be updated. Sensitive measurements of airborne activities
still reveal the presence of low levels of airborne radiocaesium over the northern
hemisphere which stems from resuspension. Over time scales of months and years,
the distribution of radionuclides in the Earth system is constantly changing, for
example relocated within plants, between plants and soil, in the soil, and into water
bodies.
Motivated by the permanent risk of transboundary impacts from potential major nuclear
accidents, the multidisciplinary project flexRISK (see http://flexRISK.boku.ac.at) has been
carried out from 2009 to 2012 in Austria to quantify such risks and hazards. An overview of
methods and results of flexRISK is given as a second part of the presentation. For each of the
228 NPPs, severe accidents were identified together with relevant inventories, release
fractions, and release frequencies. Then, Europe-wide dispersion and dose calculations were
performed for 2788 cases, using the Lagrangian particle model FLEXPART. Maps of
single-case results as well as various aggregated risk parameters were produced. It was found
that substantial consequences (intervention measures) are possible for distances up to
500-1000 km, and occur more frequently for a distance range up to 100-300 km, which is in
agreement with Chernobyl experiences. However, emergency planning presently is
still often focussing on too small areas. In reality, almost all of Europe should be
prepared for nuclear disaster. The project investigated also the effect of a simple
phase-out scenario. A regional phase-out policy is effective for reducing or even
eliminating high damage in the respective regions. It should also be mentioned that risk
distribution depends strongly on accident frequency, but this parameter is highly
uncertain.
The work in flexRISK was funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund (KLI.EN). |
|
|
|
|
|
|