ERDAD: An emergency response dispersion and dosimetry code

An essential part of emergency response to an accident involving airborne release of radioactive materials is the ability to quickly and continuously estimate the concentrations of these materials in the air in the downwind direction as well as the resulting radiation doses from exposure to these radioactive materials. Many computer codes have been developed to aid the responsible individuals in making decisions on emergency response actions at nuclear sties. However, few of these codes can be used effectively because they lack the ability to handle a time-dependent source term and/or temporally and spatially variable meteorology throughout the duration of an emergency. This paper describes the ERDAD code recently configured to assist in planning and executing emergency responses at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP)