Assessment of Environmental and Human Health Impacts of a New Nuclear Power Plant using Hybrid Single-Particle Langrangian Air Dispersion Model

Abstract

The processes of nuclear construction, operation and decommission require a complete safety analysis which involves the quantification of environmental and human health impacts due to releases of radionuclides into the biosphere. Accurate simulation of the atmospheric dispersion of radioactive materials is important for assessing the ecological risks of a new Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) project. The Hybrid Single-Particle Langrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYsplit) model developed by the United States Air Resource Laboratory is a state-of-the-art model for computing complex air dispersion scenarios. In this study, the HYsplit model was used to generate the representative of the scaling factors of air concentrations (in Bq m–3) and surface depositions (in Bq m–2) of radionuclides released from the stack of hypothetical (NPP) in Nigeria. The computed radionuclides’ air concentration and surface deposition data were used to assess the environmental and human health impacts of the Nigeria’s pioneer NPP. No statistically significant environmental and health impacts were predicted under normal operation conditions of the NPP. The impacts of various accident scenarios under different meteorological and release conditions were investigated. The results of this study could serve as support for decision making concerning the new nuclear energy program in Nigeria.