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Mesoscale dispersion of 85Kr in the vicinity of the AREVA La Hague reprocessing plant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2012

J. Barescut ,
D. Lariviere ,
T. Stocki ,
O. Connan ,
K. Smith ,
L. Solier ,
D. Maro ,
D. Hébert  and
G. Bacon
O. Connan*
Affiliation:
IRSN/DEI/SECRE, Laboratoire de Radioécologie, Cherbourg-Octeville, France
K. Smith
Affiliation:
RPII, Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, Ireland
L. Solier
Affiliation:
IRSN/DEI/SECRE, Laboratoire de Radioécologie, Cherbourg-Octeville, France
D. Maro
Affiliation:
IRSN/DEI/SECRE, Laboratoire de Radioécologie, Cherbourg-Octeville, France
D. Hébert
Affiliation:
IRSN/DEI/SECRE, Laboratoire de Radioécologie, Cherbourg-Octeville, France
G. Bacon
Affiliation:
IRSN/DEI/SECRE, Laboratoire de Radioécologie, Cherbourg-Octeville, France
*
e-mail: olivier.connan@irsn.fr
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Abstract

The Institut de Radioprotection et de Sureté Nucléaire (IRSN) performed a series of air sampling campaigns at mesoscale distances (10–80 km) from the AREVA La Hague reprocessing plant (north west of France) between 2007 and 2009. These samples were collected in order to test and optimise a technique to measure low krypton-85 (85Kr) air concentrations, and to investigate the performance of three atmospheric dispersion models (RIMPUFF, HySplit, and ADMS). This paper presents 85Kr air concentrations measured at both land and sea locations. In addition, this paper compares the measured 85Kr air concentrations, which varied from 2 to 8000 Bq m−3, with the predictions from the atmospheric dispersion models. During stable wind conditions, the dispersion models make reasonable estimates of the 85Kr field measurements. In contrast, the models fail to accurately predict temporal peaks in concentration during periods of rapid and large changes in wind speed and/or wind direction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Radioprotection , Volume 46 , Issue 6: ICRER 2011 – International Conference on Radioecology & Environmental Radioactivity: Environment & Nuclear Renaissance , 2011 , pp. S423 - S429
Copyright
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2011

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