Enhanced air dispersion modelling at a typical Chinese nuclear power plant site: Coupling RIMPUFF with two advanced diagnostic wind models

Yun Liu; Hong Li; Sida Sun; Sheng Fang

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.04.016

Enhanced air dispersion modelling at a typical Chinese nuclear power plant site: Coupling RIMPUFF with two advanced diagnostic wind models

J Environ Radioact. 2017 Sep:175-176:94-104. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.04.016. Epub 2017 May 6.

Authors

Yun Liu¹, Hong Li², Sida Sun³, Sheng Fang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. Electronic address: yun-liu12@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn.
² Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. Electronic address: lihongbj@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.
³ Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. Electronic address: sunsd12@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn.
⁴ Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. Electronic address: fangsheng@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.

PMID: 28495593
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.04.016

Abstract

An enhanced air dispersion modelling scheme is proposed to cope with the building layout and complex terrain of a typical Chinese nuclear power plant (NPP) site. In this modelling, the California Meteorological Model (CALMET) and the Stationary Wind Fit and Turbulence (SWIFT) are coupled with the Risø Mesoscale PUFF model (RIMPUFF) for refined wind field calculation. The near-field diffusion coefficient correction scheme of the Atmospheric Relative Concentrations in the Building Wakes Computer Code (ARCON96) is adopted to characterize dispersion in building arrays. The proposed method is evaluated by a wind tunnel experiment that replicates the typical Chinese NPP site. For both wind speed/direction and air concentration, the enhanced modelling predictions agree well with the observations. The fraction of the predictions within a factor of 2 and 5 of observations exceeds 55% and 82% respectively in the building area and the complex terrain area. This demonstrates the feasibility of the new enhanced modelling for typical Chinese NPP sites.

Keywords: Atmospheric dispersion; Diagnostic meteorological model; Nuclear power plant; Wind tunnel experiment.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants, Radioactive / adverse effects
Air Pollutants, Radioactive / analysis*
China
Models, Chemical*
Nuclear Power Plants
Radiation Monitoring / methods*
Wind

Substances

Air Pollutants, Radioactive