Diffusion Of Radioactive Materials Research Articles

Development of a radiological emergency evacuation model using agent-based modeling

In order to mitigate the damage caused by accidents in nuclear power plants (NPPs), evacuation strategies are usually managed on the basis of off-site effects such as the diffusion of radioactive materials and evacuee traffic simulations. However, the interactive behavior between evacuees and the accident environment has a significant effect on the consequential gap. Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a method that can control and observe such interactions by establishing agents (i.e., the evacuees) and patches (i.e., the accident environments). In this paper, a radiological emergency evacuation model is constructed to realistically check the effectiveness of an evacuation strategy using NetLogo, an ABM toolbox. Geographic layers such as radiation sources, roads, buildings, and shelters were downloaded from an official geographic information system (GIS) of Korea, and were modified into respective patches. The dispersion model adopted from the puff equation was also modified to fit the patches on the geographic layer. The evacuees were defined as vehicle agents and a traffic model was implemented by combining the shortest path search (determined by an A ∗ algorithm) and a traffic flow model incorporated in the Nagel-Schreckenberg cellular automata model. To evaluate the radiological harm to the evacuees due to the spread of radioactive materials, a simple exposure model was established to calculate the overlap fraction between the agents and the dispersion patches. This paper aims to demonstrate that the potential of ABM can handle disaster evacuation strategies more realistically than previous approaches.

Second order accuracy finite difference methods for space-fractional partial differential equations

Space-fractional partial differential equations are used for simulations of, for example, diffusion of radioactive materials, and financial and other models, which are characterized by heavy-tailed distributions. A number of first order accuracy finite difference methods have been proposed. In the present paper, we introduce second order accuracy finite difference methods with Dirichlet boundary conditions. These methods have a parameter in these schemes, and the parameter stabilizes the schemes. This means that there exist various schemes with second order accuracy, but the stability of each scheme is different. In the present paper, we introduce the most stable scheme for any fractional calculus order by choosing the optimal parameter. In addition, we describe a phenomenon whereby the expected accuracy cannot be obtained if the analytical solution can be expanded to a series having less than second order around boundaries. This also happens in both existing methods and the proposed methods. In the present paper, we develop the stability conditions for the proposed schemes, and numerical examples of second order accuracy and accuracy decay are shown.

Diffusion of Radioactive Materials from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Obtained by Gamma-Ray Measurements on Expressways

In Fukushima and neighboring prefectures, the distributions of dose rate and γ-ray count rate of radionuclides from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station were measured on expressways on March 15, 16, 17, and April 8, 2011, using an NaI(Tl) detector and a LaBr3 detector. A radioactive plume that contained 133Xe, 132Te, 132I, 131I, 134Cs, and 136Cs was observed at Koriyama on the afternoon of March 15. The plume arrived in the Nakadori region of Fukushima prefecture, which is surrounded by two mountain ranges, and most of the radioactivity there was deposited by rainfall. Although the distributions of 132Te, 132I, 134Cs, 136Cs, and 137Cs were similar, the distribution of 131I was different from the others. The effective nuclides for the dose rate measurement were 132Te and 132I on March 15-17 and 134Cs and 137Cs on April 8. The initial distribution profile of the dose rate on March 15-17 was retained on April 8 because the deposited radioactive material was not moved from the initial location and there was no additional effective deposition of radioactivity.

Detection of diaphragmatic disruptions by peritoneoscintigraphy using technetium-99M diethylene-triamine pentacetic acid.

Intraperitoneal injection of a selected radiopharmaceutical results in the diffusion of radioactive material throughout the peritoneum. A diaphragmatic injury should theoretically result in the diffusion of the radioactive material into the chest. To test this hypothesis, Technetium-99m diethylene-triamine pentacetic acid (Tc-99m DTPA) was administered intraperitoneally by either direct needle injection or catheter into 18 rabbits. Four of the rabbits served as controls and did not have any diaphragmatic injury. Fourteen rabbits had surgically induced diaphragmatic tears of varying size (1/4 to 1 cm) after thoracotomy. Four of the 14 rabbits were dropped from the study because they had inadequate peritoneal injections of the radiopharmaceutical. The remaining ten rabbits showed peritoneoscintigraphic evidence of diaphragmatic injury either by showing passage of the radiotracer into the chest, demonstrating the site of injury as a focal region of increased radiotracer uptake, or showing both of these features. Peritoneoscintigraphy appears to be a potentially useful modality in the detection of diaphragmatic injury.