Radionuclide mass balance for the TMI-2 accident: data through 1979 and preliminary assessment of uncertainties

A systematic data base of available information needed to calculate mass balances of key radionuclides arising from the Three-Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) accident as a function of time has been assembled. The sample and analysis data represent the likely major sinks except for the solids remaining in the primary system. Surfaces in the primary system are represented only by preliminary data pertaining to cesium deposition on plenum surfaces. TMI-2 component description data are included for the reactor coolant, makeup and purification, and liquid waste systems and the reactor building. The chronology of liquid transfers through the end of 1979 is included. A mass transfer model has been developed. It is concluded that tritium and cesium released into the reactor coolant traveled with the reactor coolant without losses to other phases during transit and storage. The data also suggest that tritium and cesium were not leached from primary solids and surfaces after the accident, although strontium has gradually leached from the primary solids and surfaces over a long period. Much of the iodine transferred to the reactor building sump/basement is suspected of having transferred to surfaces or solids from the sump/basement water and was therefore not found in basement water samples