Analysis of BIOMOVS II Uranium Mill Tailings scenario 1.07 with the RESRAD computer code

The residual radioactive material guidelines (RESRAD) computer code developed at Argonne National Laboratory was selected for participation in the model intercomparison test scenario, version 1.07, conducted by the Uranium Mill Tailings Working Group in the second phase of the international Biospheric Model Validation Study. The RESRAD code was enhanced to provide an output attributing radiological dose to the nuclide at the point of exposure, in addition to the existing output attributing radiological dose to the nuclide in the contaminated zone. A conceptual model to account for off-site accumulation following atmospheric deposition was developed and showed the importance of considering this process for this off-site scenario. The RESRAD predictions for the atmospheric release compared well with most of the other models. The peak and steady-state doses and concentrations predicted by RESRAD for the groundwater release also agreed well with most of the other models participating in the study; however, the RESRAD plots shows a later breakthrough time and sharp changes compared with the plots of the predictions of other models. These differences were due to differences in the formulation for the retardation factor and to not considering the effects of longitudinal dispersion.