Environmental Modelling and Software 122 (2019) 104523
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Environmental Modelling and Software
ELSEVIER
'gurnal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envsoft
Marine radionuclide transport modelling: Recent developments, problems
and challenges
R. Periäfiez %*, R. Bezhenar®, I. Brovchenko®, C. Duffa“, M. Iosjpe‘, K.T. Jung®, K.O. Kim®,
T. Kobayashi, L. Liptak®, A. Little”, V, Maderich ”, P, McGinnity‘, B.I. Min’, H. Nies 1,
[. Osvath‘, K.S. Suh), G. de With!
‘ Dpt Ffsica Aplicada I, ETSIA Universidad de Sevilla, Ctra Utrera km 1, 41013-Sevilla, Spain
' Institute of Mathematical Machine and System Problems, Glushkov av., 42 Kiey 03187, Ukraine
* Institut de Radioprotection et de Süret£ Nucl£atre, Centre de Cadarache, 13115 Saint Paul Lex Durance, France
! Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, Grini neeringspark 13 NO-1332, Osteräs, Norway
"Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology 385, Haeyang-ro, Yeongdo-gu Busan Metropolitan City, Republic of Korea
Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 2-4 Shirakata Shirane, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1195, Japan
;ABmerit s.r.o. Hornopotocna 1 917 01 Trnava, Slovakta
) Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, HMS Sultan, Military Road Gosport, Hampshire PO12 3BY, UK
International Atomic Energy Agency Environment Laboratories 4a, Qual Antoine ler, MC 98000, Monaco
Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daedeok-Daero 989-111 Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
‘ Bundesamt fuer Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie, Bernhard-Nocht-Str. 78, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group, Utrechtseweg 310, 6800 ES Arnhem, Netherlands
Chock tor
updates
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords:
4ydrodynamics
Dispersion
Marine environment
Numerical model
Sediment
A brief overview of the current status on the subject of numerical modelling of radionuclide transport in
the marine environment is given: main transport processes occurring in the sea, basic approaches to solve
such processes numerically, up-to-date trends to deal with water/sediment interactions (in the case of non-
conservative radionuclides), and topics in which work is currently in progress (like the integration of biological
uptake models within marine transport models). A brief review of models applied to simulate Fukushima
Datichi nuclear power plant releases in the Pacific Ocean after the 2011 accident is also included, since the most
‚ecent modelling efforts have been focused in this problem. A discussion of the main sources of uncertainty in
nodels is given, as well as the problems these uncertainties pose in relation to emergency modelling, which
is one of the most relevant applications of dispersion models.
|. Introduction
The main pathways for human exposure are given in Fig. 1, although
only processes within the dashed square are considered in this review.
Modelling radionuclide transport in the sea is an interdisciplinary sci-
ence which requires basic knowledge of different topics, namely ocean
dynamics, numerical methods, sedimentology and bio-geochemistry.
Consequently, it is useful to have a review of the basic required
principles.
Numerical models which simulate the transport of radionuclides in
the marine environment have been continuously improved since the
pioneering work of Prandle (1984), who simulated the transport of
dissolved 197Cs in the European Shelf Seas. This radionuclide is released
from Sellafield (UK) nuclear fuel reprocessing plant into the Irish Sea.
Later, models were developed to simulate the fate of releases from other
Assessments of radioactivity doses to humans and non-human biota
‘ely on measurement data and model outputs. Models should describe
he main radionuclide transport processes within the environment and
nodelling tools depend on the assessment character, which may be
“predictive", when expected doses are estimated for future release
scenarios, or “retrospective", when doses are estimated for past time
sources (Hunt, 2004). The modelling approach can also differ for cases
of regular or accidental releases.
In the case of the marine environment, radionuclide pathways de-
pend on sources (wet and dry atmospheric deposition, direct releases
due to regular or accidental discharges from nuclear installations,
ivers, etc.), dispersion by currents and uptake by sediments and biota.
" Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rperianez@us.es (R. Periänez).
Now retired.
nttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.104523
zeceived 16 July 2018; Received in revised form 17 July 2019; Accepted 24 September 2019
Available online 27 September 2019
1364-8152/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved,
