No abstract

No abstract

Safety assessments and environmental impact statements for nuclear fuel cycle facilities require an estimation of potential airborne releases. Aerosols generated by accidents are being investigated to develop the source terms for these releases. The lower boundary accidental release event would be a free fall spill of powders or liquids in static air. Experiments measured the mass airborne and particle size distribution of these aerosols for various source sizes and spill heights. Two powder and liquid sources were used: Ti0 2 and uo 2 ; and aqueous uranine (sodium fluorescein) and uranyl nitrate solutions. Spill height and source size were significant in releases of both powders and liquids. For the source powders used (l "m uo 2 and 1.7 "m Ti0 2 , quantities from 25 g to 1000 g, and fall heights of 1 m and 3m), the maximum source airborne was 0.12%. The maximum source airborne was an order of magnitude less for the liquids (with source quantities ranging from 125 to 1000 cc at the same fall heights). The median aerodynamic equivalent diameters for collected airborne powder ranged from 6 to 26.5 "m; liquids ranged from 4.1 to 34 "m. All of the spills produced a significant fraction of respirable particles 10 ~m and less.

No abstract

No abstract