The CEC research programme on methods for assessing the radiological impact of accidents (Maria)

The Commission of the European Communities, within the framework of its 1980-1984 Radiation Protection Research Programme, initiated a two-year project in 1983 entitled Methods for Assessing the Radiological Impact of Accidents (MARIA). This project was continued in a substantially enlarged form within the 1985-1989 Research Programme. The main objectives of the project were, firstly, to develop a new probabilistic accident consequence code that was modular, that incorporated the best features of those codes already in use, that could be readily modified to take account of new data and model developments and that would be broadly applicable within the EC; secondly, to acquire a better understanding of the limitations of current models and to develop more rigorous approaches where necessary; and, thirdly, to quantify the uncertainties associated with the model predictions. This research led to the development of the accident consequence code, COSYMA (COde SYstem from MAria), which will be made generally available later in 1990. The numerous and diverse studies that have been undertaken in support of this development are summarized in this paper, together with indications of where further effort might be most profitably directed. Consideration is also given to related research directed towards the development of real time decision support systems for use in off-site emergency management