RESRAD-BUILD
RESRAD-BUILD is used to assess radiation exposures of a human receptor in a contaminated building or a building housing contaminated furniture or equipment.
Objectives
RESRAD-BUILD is a computer code designed for analyzing radiation exposures resulting from occupying a building contaminated with radioactive materials or housing contaminated equipment or furniture, as well as from remediating the contamination.
Modeling Approach
Exposures analyzed for a receptor are considered to result from direct external radiation (from contamination sources and submersion in contaminated air), inhalation of airborne contaminated dust particles, inhalation of radon, and incidental ingestion of contaminated dust particles. The building under consideration can consist of up to nine rooms, with air exchange between the rooms and the outside environment. Up to 10 radiation sources and 10 receptors can be specified in a single calculation. Radiation sources and receptors can be located in any of the rooms, with specified coordinates and characteristics such as time fraction in the room, breathing, and incidental ingestion rate for the receptors and the orientation, shape, dimensions, and erosion rate for the contamination sources. The contamination sources can assume a point, line, plane, or volume geometry and can be on the surface or within the building, equipment, or furniture material. Radiation shielding between receptors and contamination sources can be specified and is factored into the external dose calculation. Users choose appropriate input parameter values to simulate a building occupancy (e.g., residential use and office worker) or remediation (e.g., decontamination worker and building renovation worker) scenario. Vacuuming at regular intervals can be modeled.
Features
The RESRAD-BUILD code includes a user-friendly interface to facilitate data entry, performing calculations, displaying calculation results, and accessing general and context-specific help. Relative positions of contamination sources and receptors are displayed graphically to assist in locations specification. The code contains both ICRP-38 and ICRP‑107 transformation data and allows users to select corresponding dose coefficients and cancer risk slope factors libraries. In addition, deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses can be conducted easily on most of the input parameters.
Use and Applications
The RESRAD-BUILD code is approved by NRC for use to evaluate contaminated buildings involved in decommissioning and license termination. It can also be applied to release slightly contaminated structures or properties involved in the authorized release process to save remediation and disposal cost and effort.
Learn more about the use and applications of RESRAD-BUILD at a training workshop at Argonne National Laboratory.