Advice on the report 'Severe reactoraccidents reconsidered - the source term'

After the accident with reactor-4 in Chernobylsk the Dutch government wished to know if the startin points and estimations, which have been employed in the 'Advice with regard to the source term of nuclear power plants and public health' drawn up by 1984, still can stnd the test of criticism. The commentary on this published in 1984 and in particular the reality of the Russian reactor accident obliged a new consideration. The Netherlands Energy Research Foundation (ECN) was charged with this. The result of the ECN study was published in 1987 entitled 'Severe reactor accidents reconsidered - the source term'. After the publication of the 'source-term report' the Committee Reactor Safety was asked by the assistant secretary of Public Affairs and Employment and the minister of Housing of the People, Town and Country Planning and Environment Management to bring out advice about the report. In this advice first a review is given of the developments in characterizing the source term. A summar of the source term report of the ECN is given and the way in which the study has been performed is described. Finally the comments and recommendations of the Committee are represented. (author)