An atmospheric tritium release database for model comparisons

A database of vegetation, soil, and air tritium concentrations at gridded coordinate locations following nine accidental atmospheric releases is described. The concentration data is supported by climatological data taken during and immediately after the releases. In six cases, the release data is supplemented with meteorological data taken at seven towers scattered throughout the immediate area of the releases and data from a single television tower instrumented at eight heights. While none of the releases caused a significant dose to the public, the data collected is valuable for comparison with the results of tritium transport models used for risk assessment. The largest, potential off-site dose from any of the releases was calculated to be 1.6 mrem. The population dose from this same release was 46 person-rem which represents 0.04 percent of the natural background dose to the population in the path of the release.