Effect of the Duration of Meteorological Data Collection on the Prospective Assessment of Long-Term Atmospheric Dispersion Factors.

Assessing the environmental dispersion of radioactive effluents from a nuclear facility under normal operation is a prerequisite in applying for the construction permit and operation license of the facility. In Korea, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission requires at least 1- and 2-year periods of site-specific meteorological data to assess the atmospheric dispersion of the effluents from a nuclear reactor facility for a construction permit and operating license, respectively. In this study, we investigated if an extended period of meteorological data would be certainly preferable for the prospective assessment of dispersion of the atmospheric effluents under current data handling approaches. For test estimation, the meteorological data collected in the Kori nuclear power plant site in 2001 to 2008 were utilized. We suggest that the accumulated meteorological data be reflected in assessing the atmospheric dispersion in the form of individual annual data rather than the averaged data over the whole period.