A Simple Technique to Assess the Effects of a Sudden, Shoreline, Radioactive Liquid Release into Lakes

Abstract

The simple transient model, for an instantaneous release of a finite amount of material, recommended by the USNRC Ref. Guide 1.113 [1] is examined. From this model, various useful expressions are derived for the shoreline discharge case. Two criteria are defined to quantify the concepts of "instantaneous" and "point" source (or line source in 3 dimensions) to guide practical applications.

A virtual source is defined to describe release modes which are, by the above criteria, non-point and non-instantaneous. The error in describing non-point and non-instantaneous radioactive liquid releases by a straightforward use of the USNRC instantaneous release model is demonstrated using typical parameters applied to Pickering G.S. Some practical conclusions are then pointed out.