Studies of Plutonium Aerosol Resuspension at the Time of the Maralinga Cleanup

Shinn, J.H.

doi:10.2172/15004938

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Since 1950s the U.S. government had launched a series of experimental measurements in allusion to the plutonium concentrations both in air and soil around the nuclear test sites [6]. At the end of 1970s the Lawrence Livemore National Laboratory of U.S. DOE built up an empirical model of resuspended plutonium aerosols by combining the atmospheric physics and geology with the experimental data of environmental evaluation [7][8][9][10][11]. The environmental effect analysis of plutonium aerosols resuspended in typical contaminative sites are based on the evaluated model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Environmental Effect of Radioactive Particles in the Contaminated Sites with Resuspended Plutonium Aerosols

Liu

Wang

Xiao

2013

AMR

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The plutonium material within the nuclear devices would be aerosolized and cause intense respirable hazards in the scenes of nuclear test and nuclear accident. The assessment of plutonium aerosol resuspension according to the typical radioactive contaminated sites would provide instructional data for the resuspended aerosol fluctuation study and edaphic cleanup, which can remedy the uselessness of aerosol diffusion model in the study of plutonium contaminated regions. The empirical model of plutonium aerosol resuspension is based on the aerophysics, the geognosy and the radiochemistry. This method was applied to analyze the representative plutonium contaminated regions. The results indicate that soil erosion is the intrinsic factor of resuspension process. The resuspended concentrations of plutonium aerosols in nuclear test sites are much less severe than those in the “non-nuclear” test sites (safety shots and simulated nuclear accident tests). Short-term, orders-of-magnitude fluctuations of the airborne concentrations are observed due to the natural and man-made disturbances. After systematic soil cleanup the resuspended plutonium aerosol concentration could fall down to the public allowable level.

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