A review of source term and dose estimation for the TMI-2 reactor accident

The TMI-2 nuclear reactor accident, which occurred on March 28, 1979 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, produced environmental releases of noble gases and small quantities of radioiodine. The releases occurred over a roughly two week period with almost 90% of the noble gases being released during the first three days after the initiation of the accident. Meteorological conditions during the prolonged release period varied from strong synoptic driven flows that rapidly transported the radioactive gases out of the Harrisburg area to calm situations that allowed the radioactivity to accumulate within the low lying river area and to subsequently slowly disperse within the immediate vicinity of the reactor. The results reported by various analysts, revealed that approximately 2.4--10 million curies of noble gases (mainly Xe-133), and about 14 curies of I-131 were released. During the first two days, when most of the noble gas release occurred, the plume was transported in a northerly direction causing the most exposed area to lie within a northwesterly to northeasterly direction from TMI. Changing surface winds caused the plume to be subsequently transported in a southerly direction, followed by an easterly direction. The calculated maximum whole body dose due to plume passage exceeded 100 mrem over an area extending several kilometers north of the plant, although the highest measured dose was 75 mrem. The collective dose equivalent (within a radius of 80 km) due to the noble gas exposure ranged over several orders of magnitude with a central estimate of 3300 person-rem. The small I-131 release produced barely detectable levels of activity in air and milk samples. This may have produced thyroid doses of a few milirem to a small segment of the population. 7 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs