Incorporating radioactive decay into charging and coagulation of multicomponent radioactive aerosols

Yong ha Kim, Sotira Yiacoumi, Athanasios Nenes, Costas Tsouris

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Compositional changes by the decay of radionuclides in radioactive aerosols can influence their charging state, coagulation frequency and size distribution throughout their atmospheric lifetime. The importance of such effects is unknown as they have not been considered in microphysical and global radioactivity transport studies to date. We explore the effects of compositional changes on the charging efficiency and coagulation rates of aerosols using a set of kinetic equations that couple all relevant processes (decay, charging and coagulation) and their evolution over time. Compared to a coupled aggregation-tracer model for the prediction of the radioactive composition of particulates undergoing coagulation, our kinetic approach can provide similar results using much less central processing unit time. Together with other considerations, our approach is computational efficient enough to allow implementation in 3D atmospheric transport models. The decay of radionuclides and the production of decay products within radioactive aerosols may significantly affect the aerosol charging rates, and either hinder or promote the coagulation of multicomponent radioactive aerosols. These results suggest that radiological phenomena occurring within radioactive aerosols, as well as subsequent effects on aerosol microphysics, should be considered in regional and global models to more accurately predict radioactivity transport in the atmosphere in case of a nuclear plant accident.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)283-300
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Aerosol Science
Volume114
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2017

Funding

This work was supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency under grant number DTRA1-08-10-BRCWMD-BAA . The manuscript has been co-authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DEAC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Keywords

  • Aerosol charging
  • Aerosol coagulation
  • Gaussian charge distributions
  • Multicomponent radioactive aerosols
  • Nuclear plant accidents
  • Radioactive decay
  • Radioactivity transport

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