Simulating the mesoscale transport of krypton-85

Publication date: January 2018
Source:Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Volume 181
Author(s): Anne Felsberg, J. Ole Ross, Clemens Schlosser, Gerald Kirchner
Due to its half-life, chemical inertness and low solubility in water, radioactive ⁸⁵Kr is a valuable tracer for testing the performance of atmospheric dispersion models in simulating long-range transport of pollutants. This paper evaluates the capability of simulating the dispersion of radiokrypton emitted by a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in north-west France. Three time periods during which elevated activity concentrations of ⁸⁵Kr in ground level air were detected in south-west Germany are chosen. Simulations have been performed using the HYSPLIT code and the European Centre for Median-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) data base. Although their results show a slight trend of underestimating the measured ⁸⁵Kr concentrations, there is a significant correlation and moderate scatter between observations and simulations with about 50% of the results being within a factor of two of the measured concentrations. The simulated travel time distributions provided a valuable tool for providing additional insight into the dispersion of the tracer radionuclides and for identifying potential causes of deviations between measured and calculated concentrations.



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