PRYMA-TO: A model of radionuclide transfer from air into food stuff. Test with data from the Chernobyl accident

This report describes a dynamical model developed in the Environmental Institute of the CIEMAT. Its aims are the calculation of the integrated as well as time-dependent concentrations of ''131l and ''137Cs over time in soils, in forage pasture (or other vegetation species), and in milk and meat. The source contamination is assumed to come from a radioactive cloud confined in the atmospheric mixing layer. Data monitored in different locations the days following the Chernobyl accident have been used. The model was tested against post-Chernobyl data from 13 locations around the world, in the framework of the A4 exercise from the BIOMOVS program (Biospheric Models Validation Studies). The performance of the model is illustrated in 9 scenarios which have been chosen of these 13 because they have more information or they are better described. Default Probability Density Functions for the main parameters used by the model have been obtained by statistical processing of some post-Chernobyl evidence. (Author) 30 refs