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

Abstract

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.