Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPAS) sensitivity analysis of computer codes.

摘要

The Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPAS) is a computer-based methodology developed by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) for the US Department of Energy (DOE) to estimate health impacts from the release of hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials. The health impacts are estimated from the environmental inventory and release or emission rate, constituent transport, constituent uptake and toxicity, and exposure route parameters. As part of MEPAS development and evaluation, PNL performed a formal parametric sensitivity analysis to determine the sensitivity of the model output to the input parameters, and to provide a systematic and objective method for determining the relative importance of the input parameters. The sensitivity analysis determined the sensitivity of the Hazard Potential Index (HPI) values to combinations of transport pathway and exposure routes important to evaluating environmental problems at DOE sites. Two combinations of transport pathways and exposure routes were evaluated. The sensitivity analysis focused on evaluating the effect of variation in user-specified parameters, such as constituent inventory, release and emission rates, and parameters describing the transport and exposure routes. The constituents used were strontium-90, yttrium-90, tritium, arsenic, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, toluene, and perchloroethylene. 28 refs., 3 figs., 46 tabs.