Improvement of accident dose consequences simulation software for nuclear emergency response applications

Abstract

This study integrated the nuclear power plant simulation software, PCTRAN, with an atmospheric diffusion model to efficiently evaluate a nuclear power plant accident and its off-site dose consequences. PCTRAN, with its user-friendly interface, provides a fast simulation scheme that can simulate many kinds of nuclear power plant accidents. Once accident initiation events are activated in the software, the plant parameters are calculated and displayed via animations on the user interface. Based on the simulated plant conditions, the radioactive materials considered in the software may be released from the plant to the environment. In this study, a dispersion algorithm, including a modified atmospheric diffusion model and its programming method, is proposed such that PCTRAN satisfies the application requirements to be used to plan nuclear emergency responses. First, the modified atmospheric diffusion model handles the variations of meteorological conditions (wind direction, wind velocity, and stability category) during a nuclear power plant accident simulation. Furthermore, the proposed programming method promotes calculation capability and efficiency by reducing the computational burden. For demonstration purposes, a postulated accident event was simulated for the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant in Taiwan. The overall accident evolution, whole plant response, and off-site dose consequences could be predicted much earlier than what actually occurs. The thyroid and whole body dose rates (and their accumulations) as a function of accident time are displayed on the map within the emergency planning zone (EPZ). The influence of the accident on the off-site area can thus be estimated earlier, and the emergency classification can be determined by referring to the emergency action levels (EALs) for a quick nuclear emergency response.