Assessments of the radiological consequences of releases from existing and proposed EPR/PWR nuclear power plants in France

The assessment examines the severity of the radiological impact in terms of amounts of the radioactive fission products (the release fractions) that could expel from the reactor fuel core, with these deduced from those adopted for a number of nuclear industry consequence analyses and from factual information on the actual release at Chernobyl. The immediate, interim and longer term aftermaths of the incident are modelled and analysed using the European Community standard software COSYMA to provide a probabilistic based projection of the individual risks, extent of land area and population numbers requiring countermeasure actions, and the early and late radiological health consequences for the specific locations of NPPs at Flamanville, Tricastin, Nogent and Fessenheim. The trajectory of the radioactive release plume and the footprint of radioactive fall-out are also projected at each location using satellite archived meteorological data (NOAA) to graphically illustrate the tracts of land and communities at risk.