Health-related effects of different ventilation rates in plutonium laboratories.

摘要

The health-related effects of using different ventilation rates were studied in three plutonium laboratories. Experiments were conducted by measuring the dispersion rate, 3-dimensional distribution, and clearance rate of innocuous aerosols released at different locations and three different ventilation rates. Optimum air monitoring locations and alarm times, ventilation effectiveness, local concentrations, and mixing rates were determined vs ventilation rate and release location. Ventilation rate was found to be important to worker safety--higher airflow rates decreased contaminant concentration and clearance time, yet lower rates provided earlier detection of the release. Other comparisons of the effects of high vs lower ventilation rates are made. Concurrent with the experiments, a predictive, 3-D numerical code which simulated aerosol distribution vs time after release was developed and validated. 12 refs., 51 figs., 23 tabs.