Citation

Lainoff SM, Nachbar W. Energy 1977; 2(2): 179-188.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1977, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0360-5442(77)90044-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Seabed siting of nuclear power plants could reduce significantly the safety problem posed by the severest accident, core melt followed by containment breach, in which a considerable portion of the radionuclide inventory is rapidly released to the environment. At 80 fathoms depth, in addition to a possible sizeable reduction of accident probabilities, the accident consequences to human life are likely to be greatly reduced because the most deadly components of the radioactive cloud from a land-based site will be dissolved for the seabed site. The present paper deals specifically with the oceanic diffusion of dissolved radionuclides following a severe accident (the specifications for the reference accident PWR-2 of WASH-1400 are taken) at a site chosen off the coast of San Diego, California.