Radionuclide Releases from Severe Accidents at Nuclear Power Plants
DOI: 10.1063/1.880975
Regulations governing siting and evacuation procedures for a nuclear power plant rely heavily on estimates of the quantities and types of radioactive fission products that might be emitted in the most severe accident. These estimates are called source terms. The most conservative approach to analyzing accident consequences is to assume that a severe accident might release the entire inventory of fission products within the core just before refueling. Most current regulations rely on a slight modification of that source term—100% of the noble gases, 50% of the iodine and 1% of the remaining fission products. Recent emergency procedures are based on lower, although still conservative, estimates of iodine releases.
References
1. Reactor Safety Study: An Assessment of Accident Risks in US Commercial Nuclear Power Plants, WASH‐1400 (NUREG‐75/014), U.S. NRC, October 1975.
2. Report to the APS of the Study Group on Radionuclide Releases from Severe Accidents at Nuclear Power Plants, February 1985, to be published in Rev. Mod. Phys., July 1985.
3. Report of the Special Committee on Source Terms, ANS, LaGrange Park, I11., September 1984.
4. Nuclear Power Plant Response to Severe Accidents, Technical Summary Report of the Industry Degraded Core Rulemaking Program, Technology for Energy Corp, Knoxville, Tenn., November 1984.
More about the Authors
Barbara Goss Levi. Physics Today.
