ARAC: a computer-based emergency dose-assessment service

Over the past 15 years, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) has developed and evolved a computer-based, real-time, radiological-dose-assessment service for the United States Departments of Energy and Defense. This service is built on the integrated components of real-time computer-acquired meteorological data, extensive computer databases, numerical atmospheric-dispersion models, graphical displays, and operational-assessment-staff expertise. The focus of ARAC is the off-site problem where regional meteorology and topography are dominant influences on transport and dispersion. Through application to numerous radiological accidents/releases on scales from small accidental ventings to the Chernobyl reactor disaster, ARAC has developed methods to provide emergency dose assessments from the local to the hemispheric scale. As the power of computers has evolved inversely with respect to cost and size, ARAC has expanded its service and reduced the response time from hours to minutes for an accident within the United States. Concurrently the quality of the assessments has improved as more advanced models have been developed and incorporated into the ARAC system. Over the past six years, the number of directly connected facilities has increased from 6 to 73. All major U.S. Federal agencies now have access to ARAC via the Department of Energy. This assures a level of consistency as well as experience. ARAC maintains its real-time skills by participation in approximately 150 exercises per year; ARAC also continuously validates its modeling systems by application to all available tracer experiments and data sets