Dose Estimates from the Chernobyl Accident

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) responded to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in the Soviet Union by utilizing long-range atmospheric dispersion modeling to estimate the amount of radioactivity released (source term) and the radiation dose distribution due to exposure to the radioactive cloud over Europe and the northern hemisphere. In later assessments, after the release of data on the accident by the Soviet Union, the ARAC team used their mesoscale-to-regional-scale model to focus in on the radiation dose distribution within the Soviet Union and the vicinity of the Chernobyl plant.