Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1000, Bangladesh.
Appl Radiat Isot. 2021 Feb;168:109550. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2020.109550. Epub 2020 Dec 8.
Terrorist acquisition of harmful radionuclides and subsequent construction and use of Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) can induce panic among people, as well as inflict severe economic damages. Most probable radionuclides to be used in an RDD explosion scenario at the planned Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) site, Bangladesh were studied in this work. Six radionuclides (Co-60, I-131, Cs-137, Ir-192, Am-241 and Sr-90) and six possible explosion locations were identified based on seasonal meteorological conditions. Assuming 100 mSv at the reactor building as an operational intervention level (OIL), the required threshold activities of each of the radionuclides were calculated considering prevailing atmospheric stability, using health physics code HotSpot 3.1 developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA. Alpha emitter Americium-241 and Beta emitter Strontium-90 were found to be potentially the most dangerous considered radionuclides in the event of an RDD explosion if C-4 was chosen as explosive.
恐怖分子获取有害放射性核素，随后制造并使用放射性散布装置（RDD），可能会在民众中引发恐慌，并造成严重的经济损失。本工作研究了孟加拉国罗普尔核电站（RNPP）计划场址发生 RDD 爆炸情景中最可能使用的放射性核素。根据季节性气象条件，确定了六种放射性核素（Co-60、I-131、Cs-137、Ir-192、Am-241 和 Sr-90）和六个可能的爆炸地点。假设反应堆建筑中的 100mSv 为操作干预水平（OIL），根据美国劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室开发的 HotSpot 3.1 健康物理代码，考虑到当时的大气稳定度，计算了每种放射性核素的所需阈活度。如果选择 C-4 作为爆炸物，在 RDD 爆炸事件中，α 发射器镅-241 和β发射器锶-90 被认为是最危险的放射性核素。
