Sensitivity Analysis of Hardwired Parameters in GALE Codes

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission asked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to provide a data-gathering plan for updating the hardwired data tables and parameters of the Gaseous and Liquid Effluents (GALE) codes to reflect current nuclear reactor performance. This would enable the GALE codes to make more accurate predictions about the normal radioactive release source term applicable to currently operating reactors and to the cohort of reactors planned for construction in the next few years. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to define the importance of hardwired parameters in terms of each parameter’s effect on the emission rate of the nuclides that are most important in computing potential exposures. The results of this study were used to compile a list of parameters that should be updated based on the sensitivity of these parameters to outputs of interest.