Modeling of ¹³⁷Cs as a Tracer in a Regional Model for the Western Pacific, after the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident of March 2011.

Garraffo, Zulema D.; Kim, Hae-Cheol; Mehra, Avichal; Spindler, Todd; Rivin, Ilya; Tolman, Hendrik L.

In this study, results are presented from the first operational ocean tracer dispersion model operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service/National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NOAA/NWS/NCEP). This study addresses the dispersion of radionuclide contaminants after the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident that was triggered by the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The tracer capabilities of the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) were used in a regional domain for the northwestern Pacific, with nesting lateral boundary conditions using daily nowcast-forecast fields from the global operational Real-Time Ocean Forecast System (RTOFS-Global), a ° HYCOM global forecast from NCEP, based on data-assimilative ° HYCOM Global Ocean Forecast System (GOFS) analyses from the Naval Research Laboratory/Naval Oceanographic Office (NRL/NAVOCEANO). This regional model, RTOFS Episodic Tracers for a region of the North West Pacific (RTOFS-ET_WPA), was in operation until the beginning of 2014, when the simulated 137Cs concentration was very close to the background level in the Pacific before the accident, which was about 2 Becquerel m−3 [Bq; 1 Becquerel = 1 (nuclear decay) s−1].

FUKUSHIMA Nuclear Accident, Fukushima, Japan, 2011; CESIUM isotopes; TRACERS (Chemistry); ATMOSPHERIC models; UNITED States. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration; UNITED States. National Weather Service

Weather & Forecasting, 2016, Vol 31, Issue 2, p553

0882-8156

Academic Journal

10.1175/WAF-D-13-00101.1