Atmospheric Dispersion and Deposition of Radionuclides (¹³⁷Cs and ¹³¹I) Released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant

Soon-Ung Park, Anna Choe, Moon-Soo Park

Center for Atmospheric and Environmental Modeling, Seoul, Korea.

DOI: 10.4236/cweee.2013.22B011                

Abstract

The Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model (LPDM) in the 594 km× 594 km model domain with the horizontal grid scale of 3 km×3 km centered at a power plant and the Eulerian Transport Model (ETM) modified from the Asian Dust Aerosol Model 2 (ADAM2) in the domain of 70° LAT × 140° LON with the horizontal grid scale of 27 km×27 km have been developed. These models have been implemented to simulate the concentration and deposition of radionuclides (¹³⁷Cs and ¹³¹I) released from the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. It is found that both models are able to simulate quite reasonably the observed concentrations of ¹³⁷Cs and ¹³¹I near the power plant. However, the LPDM model is more useful for the estimation of concentration near the power plant site in details whereas the ETM model is good for the long-range transport processes of the radionuclide plume. The estimated maximum mean surface concentration, column integrated mean concentration and the total deposition (wet+dry) by LPDM for the period from 12 March to 30 April 2011 are, respectively found to be 2.975 × 102 Bq m^-3, 3.7 × 107 Bq m^-2, and 1.78 × 1014 Bq m^-2 for ¹³⁷Cs and 1.96 × 104 Bq m^-3, 2.24 × 109 Bq m^-2 and 5.96 × 1014 Bq m^-2 for ¹³¹I. The radionuclide plumes released from the accident power plant are found to spread wide regions not only the whole model domain of downwind regions but the upwind regions of Russia, Mongolia, Korea, eastern China, Philippines and Vietnam within the analysis period.

Keywords

Eulerian Transport Model; Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant; Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model; Radionuclides of ¹³⁷Cs and ¹³¹I

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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