Homemade radionuclide concentration maps.

I’ve been sick for a couple weeks, and have been catching up with work and everything else, so I haven’t had much time to post lately.

I had downloaded the Windows HYSPLIT program, and finally got it working. The previous dispersion maps for WIPP posted here were made with the web version, which has fewer options, and only goes out to 72 hours. Now I can make much more useful maps by running it at home on my desktop.

Here is a link to a concentration map for tritium from the Feb. 14 release. It goes for a week after the WIPP event. It is in Google Maps format, so you can zoom in, and interact with it. Try clicking the contour levels at the upper right, to make the various concentration levels appear or disappear. It’s easier to see the city name under the plumes this way.

The kmz file for this map is available here. With this file, you can view it on Google Earth or other GPS visualizer software.

This is different from the prior maps. They were designed for generic pollutants. This one is for tritium specifically, and includes deposition. The Windows HYSPLIT program also has iodine-131 and cesium-137 built-in. It is also possible to define other nuclides like plutonium, by looking up physical parameters from chemistry books.

I am hoping to do this for Fukushima also. I can make Zardoz-type atmospheric dispersion maps now, for 2011, but also for the times of the various criticalities which have been discussed here.