Comparison of waste estimation capabilities of the models, WEST and ERMIN

Hirouchi, Jun ; Charnock, T.*

In Decision making during the recovery phase of a radiation emergency, it is important to provide predicted doses to those implementing the recovery strategy for different options, costs, effort, amount of waste and radioactive concentration of that waste for different options. The European Model for Inhabited Areas (ERMIN) can provide the information. The Waste Estimation Support Tool (WEST), which was developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, is focussed on estimating the potential volume and radioactivity levels of waste generated by a radiological incident and subsequent decontamination efforts. This study shows an exercise to compare the waste calculation approaches of the ERMIN and WEST in order to inform further development of the ERMIN tool. From the comparison between ERMIN and WEST, following potential improvements in ERMIN have been suggested: 1) Develop a better representation of interiors to allow for decontamination options for walls and ceilings to be evaluated; 2) Subdivide waste endpoints into liquid and solid components; 3) Addition of high-pressure washing and firehosing on concrete surfaces; and 4) Addition of various building coverage ratio for different building environments.