A study on the atmospheric dispersion of radionuclides in desert environment

Abstract

Recently, some countries in the Middle East show high interest in nuclear energy reflecting the de-mand of electricity followed by their economic growth and their aspiration to alternate the fossil energy to other clean and sustainable energy. Nuclear power plant is in operation in Bushehr of Iran and under construction in Barakah of United Arab Emirates as the first step of nuclear power in the Middle East. To guarantee the safety of nuclear energy is the first fundamental term for maintaining it as a sustainable energy source. The importance of the environmental impact assessment of nuclear power plant and probabilistic risk assessment of nuclear power plant is highly increased after the Fukushima accident. And the atmospheric dispersion is one of the most important transport pathways of radionuclides in the environment. Hence, characterising specific characteristics of the atmospheric dispersion of radionuclides in desert environment becomes necessary. Desert environment of the Middle East may differ considerably from other environments usually nuclear power plants existed, furthermore, Arabian Gulf region is not a safe area from earthquake, especially, Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world.Several factors influencing the atmospheric dispersion in desert environment have been categorised as surface characteristics, atmospheric characteristics and climate condition by carrying out conceptual model-ling. Low surface roughness, low precipitation, and resuspension on the arid sand surface were chosen as the characteristics for the investigation by screening work.Sensitivity analysis of ground surface roughness has been carried out to evaluate the influence of the characteristics of desert such as land of arid sand, low land use, and relatively simple terrain under the condi-tion of intense solar radiation, hence high temperature. Ground surface roughness was found to be highly affecting factor to atmospheric dispersion. The ground le...